Politico...
Obama’s immigration
speech comes amid calls for executive action
By Carrie Budoff Brown
President Barack Obama headed to Texas Tuesday toting a pledge to
jump-start work on a comprehensive immigration bill — a long-awaited,
never-attained goal of a Hispanic community that is crucial to Obama’s
hopes of winning key southwestern states in 2012.
Are they cheering his newfound commitment to the goal? Hardly.
Many top Hispanic activists say Obama’s commitment to a bill is
welcomed, but too little, too late, and they’d rather he put just as
much effort into actions he can do with the stroke of his pen — such as
slowing the deportations of certain illegal immigrants.
“We all understand the importance of the legislative process and that
we need a bipartisan bill in the long run, but that will take a long
time and given the gridlock in Washington, has an uncertain payoff,”
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said Monday. “Immigrant communities need
help now, our system is broken now, and the president can do something
about it now.”
Obama’s speech in El Paso, Texas, is the centerpiece of the president’s
latest push for a reform bill, but he’s battling deep skepticism among
those most likely to appreciate the renewed effort, which has involved
three White House meetings in the past three weeks and multiple
mentions by the president of the need for reform.
When Obama summoned more than 50 heavy hitters in politics, business
and law enforcement to the White House last month to enlist their help
on the bill, they surprised him by insisting that Obama needed to do
more with his executive power to slow the deportations of illegal
immigrants such as college students.
The disconnect between Obama and many in the State Dining Room points
up the president’s challenge.
Not only is Obama resisting requests to use his executive power, but
there also is no evidence the administration has a legislative strategy
to pass a bill through Congress. That has left many to question Obama’s
motives: Is he really serious this time, or is he just checking a
political box ahead of the 2012 election?
Democratic lawmakers, labor unions and immigrant advocacy groups are
pressing Obama to halt deportations of young illegal immigrants who
would qualify for the DREAM Act, a bill to legalize students and
military members who were brought to the United States by their
parents. It passed the House last year but fell five votes short in the
Senate. They also want to expand waivers for illegal immigrants who are
immediate relatives of U.S. citizens to give them legal status.
So far, the president has refused to act, saying the administration
will not circumvent Congress. The administration is shifting the focus
of its deportation efforts toward serious criminals, but the only way
to fix the system is through passage of a bipartisan bill, White House
aides say.
“I know some here wish that I could just bypass Congress and change the
law myself,” Obama said during a commencement address last month at
Miami Dade College. “But that’s not how democracy works. See, democracy
is hard. But it’s right. Changing our laws means doing the hard work of
changing minds and changing votes, one by one.”
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