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Peña Nieto to Urge Obama on Immigration as Mexicans Lack Status

By Eric Martin

AS/COA’s Eric Farnsworth comments on Mexico's President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto’s first visit to the White House where he will likely push for an immigration overhaul to address the legal status of a large Mexican population in the U.S. 

 

Mexico President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto probably will urge President Barack Obama to overhaul an immigration system that has trapped more than 6 million Mexicans without legal status when the two men meet for the first time at the White House today.

The odds for breaking a decade-long U.S. legislative impasse improved when Obama won a second term Nov. 6 with 71 percent support from Hispanic voters, according to exit polls, pressuring Republicans to either work with him or risk further alienating a growing political force.

About 12 million Mexicans live in the U.S. and more than half lack legal status, according to an April study by the Pew Research Center. While Pena Nieto, 46, has emphasized the need for greater economic growth to make emigration a choice rather than a necessity, he has criticized attempts by states such as Arizona to clamp down on undocumented immigrants, saying the moves are discriminatory and fail to recognize Mexican contributions to the U.S. economy.

Immigration “will undoubtedly be part of the conversation,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas, a New York-based business organization, said in a phone interview from Washington. For Pena Nieto, raising the issue would be “pushing on an open door, because he’ll find a very receptive President Obama. There’s going to be very vigorous agreement on this issue....”

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