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GUEST: Eunsook Lee, Executive Director of the National Korean American Service & Education Consortium

Members of the new Democratic-controlled Congress have predicted that reform of the nation’s immigration policy is likely to happen this session. Immigration reform is a part of the party’s one-hundred hours agenda. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said that President Bush expected an “easier time” dealing with Democrats in a meeting last week with congressional leaders. House Republicans had blocked President Bush’s immigration proposals last year and instead passed legislation authorizing the construction of a 700 mile border fence along the U.S. – Mexico border. Sensing a shift in the political climate, leaders of grassroots immigration rights coalitions have outlined their principles and strategies to achieve real immigration reform in the government’s 110th Congress. In a telephone press conference yesterday, members of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement demanded that any changes to immigration law must contain eleven elements including a non-tiered path to legalization, the passage of the DREAM Act, and halting the militarization of the border. The coalition’s proposal is signed on to by nearly 300 organizations in 35 states.