A Very Personal Lobbying Campaign
June 26, 2009
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June 25, 2009
Amid the crush of paid lobbyists swarming Capitol Hill as Congress works on health care, climate change, and financial regulations, a soft-spoken high school graduate in a tailored black skirt suit wandered the halls seeking lawmakers' support for her own personal campaign.
Maria Martinez, 19, is an illegal alien. She immigrated to this country from El Salvador six years ago to be with her mother, who works in a poultry processing plant in the mountains of rural Virginia. And she is scheduled to be deported Aug. 27.
There is nothing unusual about Ms. Martinez's circumstances. In 2007, the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute estimated there were some 360,000 high school graduates between the ages of 18 and 24 who would have qualified for legal status under an immigration bill that failed to pass in Congress two years ago.
But with President Obama meeting lawmakers today to talk about the prospects of pushing new immigration legislation, her quiet campaign brought to life what's at stake in their discussions about political strategies and timetables.
During his campaign, President Obama promised to make comprehensive immigration reform - including a measure that would provide a route to legal status to most of those living in this country illegally -- a priority for his first year in office. But his work with Congress on health care and the economy, along with the difficulty of reaching consensus on immigration, appear to be pushing the agenda back to next year, or beyond.
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