On Tuesday, the President of the United States delivered his 5th State of the Union address, during which he stated:

“If we are serious about economic growth, it is time to heed the call of business leaders, labor leaders, faith leaders, and law enforcement – and fix our broken immigration system.”

He reiterated his commitment to fix our broken immigration system. He also indicated that he knows that the House of Representatives wants to pass immigration reform bills that deal with issues from national security to economic security. This is quite a welcoming step forward following the contentious logjam that we have seen with other major domestic policy initiatives. It appears that the President understands the need to be patient and allow the House to work through individual bills addressing 7-8 components of immigration reform. The Senate initiative in the form of S. 744, the Border Security Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, which passed the Senate in June of 2013, no longer seems to be the marker for the White House. As Co-Chair of the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, a business coalition committed to reforming our broken system, we are cautiously optimistic that this Congress can actually pull together to pass immigration reform that actually fixes this fatally flawed regime we live under.