WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called on Hispanic activists Monday to build a movement outside Washington to push for overhauling immigration, saying he can’t do it by himself and Republicans aren’t playing along.
He said he remains committed to his unfulfilled promise to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws to offer a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. But he offered no timelines as he spoke at the annual conference of a major Hispanic civil rights organization, the National Council of La Raza, and prospects for congressional action are bleak.
Obama acknowledged as much himself. “I need a dance partner here and the floor is empty,” he said in referring to congressional Republicans.
But Obama faced a roomful of activists eager for him to do more. Speaking about the high number of deportations that are troubling the Latino community, Obama said he had to enforce the laws that exist and couldn’t change them on his own.
The crowd disagreed and shouted, “Yes you can, Yes you can!”
In face of that reaction — and with an election year approaching and the Hispanic vote ever more important — Obama emphasized that inaction on immigration is not his fault.
“Feel free to keep the heat on me and keep the heat on Democrats, but here’s the only thing you should know — the Democrats and your president are with you, are with you. Don’t get confused about that. Remember who it is we need to move in order to actually change the laws,” he said.
Obama also said it was “heartbreaking” to see Congress get so close, only to block legislation to provide a route to legal status for college students and service members brought to the country as children.
That bill, called the DREAM Act, passed the House last year when it was controlled by Democrats but was blocked by Senate Republicans.
Comments (1)
Add commentTaxpayers to the Worlds poor.
It’s true that we should welcome the top brains and higher technically educated in this country, the professional on the career ladder who are venerated by their country of origin. Instead we are allowing the poor of other countries to enter that require social programs, or are involved in criminal activities. We certainly don't need foreigners who have limited skills, because hundreds of thousands of Americans have those abilities. Economic Illegal aliens have severely damaged this nation’s ability to look after its own impoverished, the sick and seniors. For the open border advocacy organization and pro-immigration politicians, it’s a massive money grabbing enterprise of businesses that adamantly hire foreign nationals as there is no obligation to them, other than lower wages.
They are a chief reason companies are fighting to derail E-Verify, so they can keep on collecting all the large profits. House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith's (R-Texas) has sponsored E-Verify bill, The Legal Workforce Act (H.R.2164) is being compromised by negative assessment, that thousands of legitimate Americans are being rejected by the electronic verification system. But what they don't stipulate that these people have a right to verify their immigration status in any Social Security office. Even so, the application does have a 99.98 success rate, with extra innovation being added including nationwide drivers license ID recognition software.
Illegal immigration is a spreading plague, which will be a major issue in the 2012 elections, Americans committed to honest voting rules, must be especially vigilant that Democrats and the Liberal agenda have been caught time and time again, attributing to non-citizens voting. Non-citizen voting is likely growing at the same speed as the migrant and immigration population in the America; but because of deficiency in state law and the failure of federal agencies to comply with federal law, there are almost no measures in place that permit election officials to identify, deter, and thwart non-citizens from registering and voting. Instead, officials are largely reliant on an "honor system" that expects non-citizens to follow the law. Yet in the debates over what to do about the 13 million foreign nationals estimated (Not the true figure) to be in the United States, there has been practically no committees of how to ensure that they do not register and vote in federal elections.
This report examines the likely consequences if an amnesty for the illegal alien population found passage, similar to the one adopted in 1986. A new amnesty passed has a projection of 2.5 Trillion dollars today. This is also based on only 13 million foreign nationals squatting here. The full report is available in pdf format. http://www.fairus.org/site/DocServer/USCostStudy_2010.pdf?docID=4921
IF-these far out deductions are supposedly true, that illegal aliens living in America benefit the United State economically? Then you should read the in depth meticulous analysis by (FAIR) Federation of American Immigration Reform. Simply stated in annual terms, the Federal government spends. Education Subtotal $2,107,800,000; Medical Subtotal $5,949,900,000; Law Enforcement Subtotal $7,838,700,000; General expenditures (Welfare) $8,184,400,000; FEDERAL TOTAL $28B, 645,400,000. STATE AND LOCAL TOTAL FOR ALL STATES: $83B, 851.000.000 GRAND TOTAL; 113B, 250. 000.000
RECEIPTS FROM ILLEGAL ALIENS Both Federal and State local government revenues $13B, 235.000.000
The American people should start calling Washington and their House and Senate at Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. The Lawmakers need to hear from you, how angry and frustrated you are regarding the illegal immigration occupation. In addition read more about this financial numbing issue that threatens to rot our country from within at NumbersUSA, Judicial Watch. This is about illegal immigration, not legal immigration. Any Amnesty, immigration reform, will raise the discretionary Spending, the debt ceiling even more, sending us into deeper insolvency. Illegal immigration is not about Blacks, White, Hispanics or any racial gender, people from Europe, Central America as every Citizen, green card recipient will severely suffer in any new volume mega amnesty is established. It will wreak havoc in mainstream jobs; allow access of new immigrants to Social Security, even though they never paid into the system. Then the ultimate insult millions more arriving here under CHAIN MIGRATION LAWS can also apply for welfare benefits, when their sponsor doesn’t honor his support petition when first arriving.