US immigration reform is progressing says White House advisor

November 16 2009 by Liam Clifford

Immigration changes will start to take place as early as 2010.

The US immigration reform bill could become policy as early as 2010, according to David Axelrod, a senior advisor to President Obama.

Axelrod told CNN’s State of the Union programme that Democrats and Republicans are currently working together to put the draft bill together.

He stated, "I think some good work is being done on both sides of the aisle to achieve that." He also explained, "we have to have better security at our borders and we are developing that." This refers to key concerns held by critics of plans proposed by the George Bush administration for US immigration reform some years back.

Axelrod also indicated the kind of form the US immigration reform could take: “we have to hold accountable and responsible the 12 million people who are here illegally and they have to pay a fine and a penalty, and have to meet certain requirements in order to get in line to earn citizenship.”

The reform bill is likely to provide a route to citizenship for the millions of unregistered people who have moved to the US for a better life from countries around the world.

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