Norristown Asked, The White House Answered

Back in January, the White House reached out to Patch sites across the country to get questions from its users. We asked Norristown Patch readers if they had anything to ask the president and we got a few really great questions to pass along.

One of the few responses chosen was from Norristown Patch reader Pat Mancuso, who asked about an issue on the minds of many Norristown residents. Pat asked:

"Why does it take three additional years for a potential immigrant to be approved for a green card after they waited 10 years on the green card list, but illegal immigrants can be here in minutes?"

In the video above, you can hear the response from the White House's Director of the Domestic Policy Council, Cecilia Muñoz.

"The reason that the president... talks about a comprehensive immigration reform is because we have to fix the legal immigration system in the same way that we have to do something about illegal immigration," said Muñoz. "That means reducing backlogs, reducing waiting periods and making sure the legal immigration system can function properly because that is one of the tools that we need to get our immigration system under control."

See the video for the full response. You can see the questions and responses from other Patch readers in our video section as well.

Patch reached out to representatives from the Republican party with similar questions, but received no response.

Thanks to Pat and all of our readers who submitted questions. Norristown Patch's mission is to not only bring you news and information, but to connect our users and give them a platform for making their voices heard. We're thrilled we were able to help someone from our area be heard all the way in Washington.