I think President Obama just killed comprehensive immigration reform.
If he did, he killed it gently, with a pat on the head. Actually to be fair, he did not kill it. He sent it to the back of the bus. Behind the gays and lesbians.
The gays got the promise of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. And a reminder that he's already given them Employee Non-Discrimination.
Immigration reform got a casual platitude.
And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system -- to secure our borders, enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nations.
12 million undocumented immigrants deserved more than those 38 words.
"Continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system."
Does that imply that Congress or the White House have been already busy fixing our broken immigration system? Were they doing it during the rest breaks in the middle of health care reform gridlock? If so, I missed the memo.
Yes, Department of Homeland Security has been tweaking the system, re-examining Bush-era diktats, looking at the conditions of detention centers. But that's not fixing a broken system, it's not even duct taping it. That is just sweeping at the edges with a fly whisk.
But it says something for our nation's mood that President Obama felt more confident promising repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell than taking on the immigration hot potato. Perhaps the defenders of Prop 8 in the courts in San Francisco had a point when they said that gays don't need the protection of the court. It's a community with a lot of political clout already.
The tragedy is, that when the cultural tides are sweeping towards gay marriage, the president offered gays the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell -- a promise that seemed fresh and exciting in the first days of the Clinton presidency. Now it seems like yesterday's leftover promise.
But at least gays got the leftovers. The immigrants who had demanded comprehensive immigration reform were gently told "Not right now. With 10 percent unemployment, it's too risky. We must wait for the right time."
I remember when they would tell that to the gays.
Stuart Whatley: Obama's State of the Union Falls Short on Correcting Citizens United Debacle
If the legislative efforts in Washington last year reveal anything, it's that politics and policymaking are corrupted overwhelmingly by perverse electoral incentives. Obama's goals depend on his leadership in fixing this.
AMERICAS had enough of our neighbors to the South breaking into our homeland and robbing us blind and DEMANDING WE REWARD THEM FOR THEIR CRIMES !!!!!
The President's words were music to my ears. I only hope he keeps to them.
"12 million undocumented immigrants deserved more than those 38 words."
12 million ILLEGAL ALIENS don't "deserve" anything. They are sucking our systems dry and need to return to their own countries. We need to heavily fine those who hire ILLEGALS and the jobs would dry up. ILLEGALS would self deport leaving jobs that AMERICANS and LEGAL immigrants could take.
"The immigrants who had demanded comprehensive immigration reform were gently told "Not right now." ILLEGALS shouldn't be "demanding" anything. We need to demand that they LEAVE OUR COUNTRY!
Illegal aliens are destroying this Country, and one would have to be almost blind not to see this. How much longer do we have to support these illegal aliens? How much longer do we have to school their illegal alien children? How much longer are we going to let them have our jobs? How much longer are we going to put up with all the crime, stolen identities, forged documents, fake green cards? How much longer are we going to allow these illegal aliens to send money out of this Country and bring our Country down? Oh, amnesty will correct all this. WRONG! Nothing will change except we wouldn't be able to call them illegal aliens any more. Let's get rid of these illegal aliens! Let's get them back to their own Country where they belong with their families.
NO AMNESTY! ENFORCE THE LAW!
I am 100% opposed to illegal immigration of unskilled workers who take jobs from those who already have trouble finding work. We have more then enough construction workers, until we're back at full employment there should be a big "America is full" sign laid out through employer enforcement.
If immigrants want to come here, earn it. Get a degree, learn some useful skills. There are no foreigners with PHDs in Engineering or advanced nurse training that have to jump the fence.
"Bring us your best, your brightest, your most productive so that America can remain a shining beacon of progress" let that be the immigration mantra for the 21st century information economy.
The US welcomes 3 million new citizens from other countries every year. I didn't know this is a problem.
Consider this: You've occasionally had a friend or two sleep over at your house I imagine.Right? What if you came home and discovered a few dozen people you never met suddenly living in your house?
Obama was wise to low-key that issue in his speech.
As he was wise to low-key foreign policy issues. Bush announced the "axis of evil" (Iraq, Iran, North Korea) in a state of the union speech, and everything was much harder after that. The speech may hav e been red-meat for US conservatives, but it was also that for the nationalists in all three of those countries.
Obama is smarter. Don't stir up Tea Baggers. Don't say stupid stuff about foreign countries that you can't back up . Smart guy, President Obama. Refreshing