The newest "talking point" we're hearing from Hispanic Republicans about immigration is that Barack Obama hasn't fulfilled his promise to push for immigration reform during his first year in office, when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. For good measure, they point out that the Obama administration has deported more undocumented immigrants each year than that of Republican predecessor George W. Bush.
I've consistently criticized the President for not devoting more effort and zeal to the difficult issue of immigration reform. Over his first two years in office-when he had a legitimate opportunity to get things done before spending the next two years running for re-election--he spent all his political capital on health care reform, which sucked up oxygen that could have been devoted to any number of other issues. I've consistently criticized the use of immigration at the last minute as an election-year issue, to give the impression that something is being done while in reality nothing has changed. I've consistently said that the Democrats can do more on immigration-not just Obama today, but his predecessors in previous administrations as well. (The difference is that his predecessors, such as Bill Clinton, made no promises to that effect.) I've criticized the expansion of federal programs that are contributing to record deportation rates, which purport to target criminals but in reality have mostly affected hardworking fathers and mothers. And I've critically pointed out that, even under the new standards for deportation, undocumented young people who would benefit from the DREAM Act have to fight tooth and nail to keep themselves from getting deported.
But for Republicans to criticize Obama for not keeping his promise of reform shows that their cynicism knows no bounds.
These Republican figures are trying to manipulate the understandable discontent among some Latino voters with the lack of reform and the high rate of deportations by wrapping it up neatly into the soundbite "President Barack Obama broke his promise on immigration reform." It would be laughable if the consequences weren't so serious, even devastating.
What Republicans don't mention is that they themselves share an enormous amount of blame for not making the President's promise a reality. They jump at the mere mention of "reform." They rush to squelch any signs of movement on the issue. Nor do they mention that they blocked even more limited measures like the DREAM Act-or that, during the debate over the bill in the House of Representatives in December 2010, now-Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Lamar Smith compared undocumented students to criminals. It's true that when the bill passed the House and arrived on the Senate floor, five Senate Democrats (who would have made the difference in meeting the 60-vote threshold to pass cloture) voted against it. But DREAM also would have passed with the votes of any five of the 36 Republicans who voted against it-many of whom cosponsored, or even wrote, versions of the bill in earlier years.
The questions facing these Republicans are simple: if Obama had, in fact, introduced an immigration reform bill, would Republicans have supported it? Do they support comprehensive immigration reform now? Does presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney support it? The answers are also simple: a resounding no. They wouldn't have supported it then, and they don't support it now. Romney, who has dared to use the "broken promise" argument himself once or twice, doesn't merely oppose comprehensive reform but believes in the concept of "self-deportation"-that immigrants, even those who've lived in the United States for decades, should decide to pick up and leave by themselves before ICE gets to them first.
Well, at least he certainly gives off the impression he believes that. But Bettina Inclán, the director of Hispanic outreach for the Republican National Committee (RNC), said yesterday that Romney is "still deciding what his position on immigration is." Good lord. Maybe Inclán was referring to the DREAM Act: after all, Romney has shifted from promising to veto it if he is elected president to considering a Republican version now that he wants to appeal to Latino voters.
And let's not even talk about deportation rates. Every time I hear a Hispanic Republican say that Obama has deported more undocumented immigrants than Bush, it sets my teeth on edge. I keep waiting to hear what should come at the end of the sentence: "and we don't think that he's deported enough."
The gall it takes to criticize someone for not doing something that you wouldn't have supported anyway is the definition of hypocrisy.
I don't know if the strategy will reap benefits for Republicans among Hispanics who are legitimately disaffected with Obama over immigration. But what I know for sure is that the Republicans' cheap argument is nothing more than the pot calling the kettle black.
Follow Maribel Hastings on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@AmericasVoiceE
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| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
Republicans NEVER promised immigration reform, Obama did.
Obama had all 3 houses at one point, which is how he got his healthcare law passed.
If he was so passionate about immigration reform, he would have pursued it with the same zeal as he did with health care.
Hey Latinos, I will explain it to you very simply....OBAMA LIED.
He needed your votes, you gave it to him, then he gave you pocket lint.
It's now up to you whether to dupe you yet again.
I am for immigration reform but I don't think the President pursued it because he knew the Republicans were going to say 'no' on everything. Not one Republican was willing to stand up and compromise on this issue and you have to have bipartisan support for this.
It's a shame that the GOTP have moved so far to the right. In 2007 they were ready to pass it and now they refuse even on the most basic of bills that make sense. While I am annoyed that the President hasn't moved on CIR, or the UAFA or signed an EO holding all DOMA deportations in abeyance I will still vote for him. And I do so because I know he has my best interests at heart. The same cannot be said for Romney and the GOTP.
But claiming that solely the GOP has been stagnant on amnesty is pure fiction.
Obama sees the polling, and knows the anti-illegal alien position is MUCH more popular, and Latinos still vote for him shows him he has nothing to lose by deporting people in droves.
And those 40 million Americans are citizens and have a legitimate claim to make for government to act on their behalf. Undocumented immigrants have no such claim on the government.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform is necessary: I'd like to see some kind of plan put forward to placing these people on the path to citizenship.
Republicans had eight years to pass CIR, and would not do so even when Senator John McCain vigorously pushed them to do so.
> 2007 ~ (D-IL) U.S. Senator, lead the Democrats in the "poison bullet amendments" to the last proposed CIR Bill causing its defect, 4.5yrs ago. No CIR legislation has been introduced into either House of the U.S. Congress since.
> Today ~ (D) POTUS Obama is deporting illegals = 1 every 79 seconds of his 40-month presidency
> Since 2001 ~ The U.S. Immigration Policy is granting 1 million "vetted" legal immigrants entering the USA, each & every year, since 2001 = 1 legal immigrant every 38 seconds, 24/7 for the past consecutive 10yrs.
Appears ~ (D) Obama is replacing "unvetted" illegals with "vetted" legal immigrants ~ no evidence, Obama supports illegals, unauthorized to work in the USA, to a "pathway" to Naturalized U.S. Citizenship
In fiscal 2010 the removal pace of criminal aliens was fully 60% higher than in the last year of the Bush administration. In 2011 the Obama administration set a new record for deportations. Under Bush the majority of removals were people who had not been convicted of any crime, a trend reversed by Obama. The only other time deportations came close to the levels of the Obama administration was in the early 1930s. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President Bush's final year in office.
Secure Communities, which relies on fingerprints from arrests, has played a critical role in the record-breaking deportations of criminal immigrants. Secure Communities was launched in October 2008 and plans are to implement it in every jail by 2013. The Republicans provided no such comprehensive immigration effort. The number of illegal immigrants skyrocketed in the first half of the decade, rising from 8.4 million in 2000 to a high of 12 million in 2007.
And it is Obama's immigration policy that conservatives condem.
The only real beneficiaries of illegal immigration are those who employ them at lower wages than a citizen would otherwise command.
We have to let the corporations know that we will appreciate them hiring Americans to keep the Recovery going:
http://redwriteblue.blog.com/2011/11/04/releaf-america/
It means people will either have to continue living in a shadow economy, barely scraping by, and having social services cut for them. Or, they go back to their home country, and apply for citizenship like a lawful individual.
The democrats pander to the Latino population by implying that immigration laws are the issue, and that some form of amnesty is likely. It's not. It should never be. There are too many people all over the world waiting in line to get admission into the US. Just because you can walk across the sonora dessert, you don't get to skip the line.
We should as well change the 14th amendment.
I have to say as a democrat the republicans are in tune with what the American public wants and they don't want any dream act/amnesty.