It's always amusing to watch political leaders trying to catch up with the people. The White House is now sprinting to catch up with those demanding practical solutions to our broken immigration system. After more than 14 months and no progress, the grassroots finally lost their patience.
One would like to think that this belated effort from the administration is being stoked by a renewed understanding of the moral dimensions of the crisis and comprehension of the desperate need our economy has for the infusion that immigration reform would bring.
In reality, politics is much more complicated. The history of how we got here looks more like this:
CNN: Obama not pushing to pass immigration reform this year
Multiple Obama administration officials tell CNN that the White House is not pushing to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill this year.
New York Times: Reform, on Ice
President Obama gave immigration reform only one vague sentence in his State of the Union address. Despite that, and the poisonous stalemate on Capitol Hill, the White House and Democratic Congressional leaders insist that they are still committed to presenting a comprehensive reform bill this year -- one that would clamp down on the border and workplace, streamline legal immigration and bring 12 million illegal immigrants out of the shadows.
America's Voice: Democrats Accused of "Empty Words" on Immigration
There's a very strong editorial today in La Opinion on the issue of immigration reform. Translated, the title reads, "No More Empty Words." It lays responsibility for any inaction on immigration this Congress squarely at the feet of Democrats. It notes that in the past Democrats were able to blame Republicans for blocking comprehensive immigration reform, but not now, not with control of the White House and solid majorities in both chambers.
Ali Noorani, Huffington Post: A Vision Becoming Reality for March 21st
Today, La Opinion, the largest Spanish language newspaper in the U.S., reported on a possible framework for moving forward comprehensive immigration reform legislation in the Senate. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) has worked for more than a year with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to create a bipartisan immigration reform bill. Advocates and immigrant communities have been waiting for many years for the government to finally fix the broken immigration system, to an immigration system that works and reflects the interests and the values of the American people. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Americans are mobilizing across the country to push for immigration reform.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ali-noorani/immigration-reform-a-visi_b_488738.html
Washington Post: Immigrant rights group slam Obama, Democrats for slow action with legalization bill
Leaders of nearly a dozen grass-roots immigrant rights groups excoriated President Obama and congressional Democrats on Monday, accusing them of moving too slowly to legalize the status of undocumented immigrants and citing a record number of deportations in 2009.
Joshua Hoyt, Washington Post: Obama risks alienating Latinos with lack of immigration reform
I have known Barack Obama since 1986, when we were both community organizers. I am still organizing on the streets of Chicago, and what I see in the Latino community makes me fear that the president is oblivious to the pain wrought by our broken immigration system. It could have a profound effect on the 2010 and 2012 elections.
Markos Moulitsas, The Hill: Immigration is Dems' key
No matter who wins the tight special election in Massachusetts, the results will likely render Democrats paralyzed with fear. Indeed, the anti-incumbent sentiment that aided Democrats the last two cycles now threatens to take out a big chunk of the Democratic majorities this coming November, and the governing party has done little to prove it can deliver on campaign promises.
Irish Central: Rahm Emanuel blocking progress on immigration reform, says Hispanic lobby
Rahm Emanuel has emerged as the major problem within the White House on reform of immigration. A New York Times magazine article due out this Sunday reports that Hispanic leader in Congress believe that he does not take the the issue seriously and is the person blocking progress.
Douglas Rivlin, AlterNet: White House Immigration Meeting Postponed
Roll Call and others are reporting that the White House meeting President Obama and Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) had scheduled for Monday afternoon was rescheduled. Apparently, Senator Graham's flight was cancelled...No word yet on when the meeting will be rescheduled, but the clock is ticking. The March for America, planned for March 21, would seem to be a hard deadline for the President and Congress to demonstrate some progress, an event not likely to be postponed because of flight delays.
Politico: RAIN CHECK
The immigration meeting will be rescheduled, a White House spokesman said - and staffers will meet with grassroots immigration groups on Thursday. -- Glenn Thrush
Campus Progress: In Secret Meeting Held By Mainstream Anti-Immigration Group, Talk Of Turning Immigrant Women Into 'The New Welfare Queens' And Other Incendiary Rhetoric
In a evening conference call held last night, Mar. 8, anti-immigration group Numbers USA--best known for its brute force attacks on Congress to defeat comprehensive immigration reform in 2007--discussed a variety of tactics to thwart an upcoming march on Washington DC by immigrant rights supporters, including one proposal to call immigrant women from Mexico "the new welfare queens in America."
OpEdNews: Alarming rise in the number of anti-government, anti-immigrant extremist groups
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has reported an alarming rise in the number of American anti-government militia and anti-immigrant groups, which have remained largely dormant since their heyday in the mid-1990s.
The question of what happens next will be answered by the White House and Democrats. Will they lead on this issue or not? In that offing, I see two possible outcomes: Obama delivers on promises for immigration reform. Most Americans cheer practical bipartisan solution.
Or Obama fails to deliver change. Turn out low. Incumbents turned out of office. It's that simple.
Follow Deepak Bhargava on Twitter: www.twitter.com/communitychange
I lived on the border for many years in Laredo, and McAllen, and my neighbors who were all Hispanic were NOT of your opinion either. They were the ones whose property was being trashed by the illegals. It is the commuter illegals who live in Mexico, and work in the US who keep wages low in these areas. We need enforcement of our current laws, then if there is a problem, we can adjust the laws when we secure our border.
There are more unemployed and underemployed people in this country then there are legal and illegal immigrants.
How anyone can look our 30+ million unemployed people in the eye and tell them that it is more important to give illegals amnesty then the citizens jobs is beyond me. And don't call the $500 fine the latest attempt had any sort of fine. That is a small fraction of what it costs US taxpayers to do the paperwork, medical history, background checks, etc.
No matter how you slice it this is just wrong. Yes I feel for many of the illegals who, other then breaking our immigration and likely some ID theft laws, are good people. I would trade them for some of the ones we have to keep if I could. But the fact is that there are about 4 billion people on this planet who are in worse shape then the average illegal.
And the last thing we need in this country is more bodies using natural resources we don't have.
They understand that the huge numbers of unemployed and underemployed people worldwide would quickly swamp the limited number of jobs in the US with uncontrolled immigration. China alone has more people living in poverty looking for better prospects than the entire population of the USA.
They understand illegal immigration has already contributed to our current unemployment disaster. They know this from US Government unemployment reports that show every profession where large numbers of Illegal Immigrants are employed have had unemployment rates at recession levels for the last decade, and now have unemployment rates as high as 26%. They know that for various reasons we ignore almost as many Americans (6 million) who want to work when compiling unemployment figures as there are working Illegal Immigrants (7.5 million).
A CNN Poll released 10/22/09 says 73% of Americans want to see the number of Illegal Immigrants in the USA reduced. With 60% wanting the number of Illegal Immigrants reduced either significantly or completely to zero.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/22/cnn-poll-3- out-of-4-want-illegal-immigration-decreased/?fbid=sOOo7LPiv 1q
No matter how angry some grass roots people may get, Politicians still know how to read polls.
Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations Unemployment Rate 8.5%
Construction and extraction occupations Unemployment Rate 7.6%
Production occupations Unemployment Rate 5.7%
Transportation, material moving occupations Unemployment Rate 6.0%
Service occupations Unemployment Rate 5.9%
Total Number of Americans Looking for Work bottomed out at 12.4 million in March of that year, whereas a year earlier the Pew Center estimated the number of working Illegal Immigrants as 7.5 million. The Pew Center data showed most Illegal Immigrants worked in agriculture, office and house cleaning, construction, and food preparation.
Meanwhile Management, professional, and related occupations Unemployment Rate was 2.1%
The Management, Professional, and related occupations unemployment rate shows that most of the 12.4 million unemployed Americans were unemployed from jobs most taken by Illegal Immigrants. During this period people earning below poverty line wages rose above 12%. Youth unemployment was over 20%. The resulting incremental cost was over $100 billion in unemployment compensation and welfare. And these statistics do not reflect the lost opportunity of long term welfare recipients realizing job opportunities for the first time in years. With these devastating statistics how can anyone cling to the idea Illegal Immigration was an economic benefit?
Farm Workers top the Pew Center list of occupations most affected by Illegal Immigration. There are a quarter million people who do this back breaking job with as much as 25% of the workforce made up of Illegal Immigrants. In January they experienced a 26% unemployment rate (before counting discouraged workers). According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Farm Workers earn a median wage of $8.64 per hour. Construction Laborers who work equally hard with comparable skills but they earn median wages between $11.23 and $13.19 per hour. The lowest skilled Loggers earn a median wage of $14.66 per hour. Even Parking Lot Attendants have higher median wages than Farm Laborers at $9.04 per hour.
This is a great example of the devastation Illegal Immigration has wrought on wages. The sad part is even if farm wages were to increase to the level of Laborers and Loggers, to a median wage of $13.50 per hour, the cost of farm labor is only 7% of the cost of food. The result would be a 4.5% increase in food prices. Inflation is often greater. An oversupply of labor at the peak of an economic expansion magnifies the effects of the recession that follows.
Obama has deported more people in his first year in office than George W. Bush did in his last year. He is on pace to deport more people than any President in the history of our government. His administration then tries to spin his record of mass deportation thinking that we aren't smart enough to see through his BS.
His lofty rhetoric that he cares about families who are being ripped apart by broken immigration laws simply does not match his actions as head of the Executive Branch that oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
If he really wants to live up to his broken campaign promises he needs to implement a temporary moratorium on immigration raids, and provide temporary protected status to individuals who have been brought here as children, or who have United States citizen family members but due to current law are ineligible for relief from removal.
Put up or shut up Mr. President, because if you don't we will not forget in 2012.
If you are serious, then I suggest you make a start by giving up YOUR job to a poor illegal. They need it more than you since you had so many years to make your money. NOW give them a chance!