As the debate on immigration reform continues, immigration agents now want to be part of President Obama's reform talks while opponents of so-called "amnesty" are ready to take their case to court.
According to the Washington Times, the head of the union for agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent a letter to the White House on Tuesday asking President Obama to be included in future meetings on immigration.
The letter comes after ICE was left out of meetings that President Obama had this week with business groups and immigrant rights activists to discuss immigration reform.
In the letter, Chris Crane, president of the National ICE Council-which is 7,000 members strong-questioned why the president did not ask the agents responsible for enforcing immigration laws to be part of the discussion on immigration reform.
"These measures would have significant implications for interior immigration enforcement and I believe our officers - who risk their lives every day to secure the nation - have a crucial perspective to offer," Mr. Crane said in the letter.
Crane, who will be testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday regarding new immigration policies. Crane filed a lawsuit contesting President Obama's new non-deportation policies that he argues force agents to ignore their oath to enforce immigration laws.
Meanwhile, lobby groups who helped push to kill immigration overhaul efforts in the Senate in 2007 are preparing to fight the latest push to fight the immigration reforms presently on the table.
Rosemary Jenks, chief lobbyist for NumbersUSA, which led the fight against the proposals from former President Bush on immigration reform that would have granted millions of undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship in 2007, told ABC News that their group has an even larger membership ready to make phone calls to the Senate.
"Our goal is to make sure that every one of those 1.4 million people, plus anyone else we can find, will be faxing their members of Congress, calling their members of Congress, emailing their members of Congress, and making it absolutely clear that the American people are not onboard with this," she said.
That could prove difficult given that there is a shift in the immigration debate now, thanks to the record-setting number of Latino voters who voted for President Obama in the November election, thanks in part to ex-GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney making statements that he would support tougher immigration laws that would force many of the undocumented immigrants in the nation to "self-deport."
Facing a changing electorate, Republicans have been stepping forward and working with Democrats on a compromise bill on immigration. Chief among those efforts is the "Gang of Eight" that included U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., which proposed last month a compromise package that would have a conditional pathway to citizenship while calling for improved border security and having employers use E-Verify to check the immigration status of employees.
"It's one thing to shoot yourself in the foot. Just don't reload the gun," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina earlier this month.
Opponents of immigration reform insist that once more details come out regarding legislation on the issue, a movement against it will begin to coalesce, but pro-immigration advocates such as Brad Bailey, a Republican and executive director of the Texas Immigration Solution, say that the public will be more inclined to back a comprehensive package with both a path to citizenship and stricter border controls.
"I think you're seeing a major change," he told ABC News. "Once the specifics are spelled out and explained, people will start agreeing and understanding and comprehending there's a whole plan."
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