Obama to Latinos: Press GOP on immigration - Page 2

Originally Posted by Alex QA

http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshge...migration.html

President Barack Obama is urging Latino voters to spend less time pressing him to ease the enforcement of immigration laws and more time pressing Republican lawmakers to get behind immigration reform legislation.

"The problem right now is not on the Democratic side....Everybody for some reason is letting the Republican Party off the hook on this issue, either by hoping that I can take a unilateral action or that somehow Democrats can change the way Congress works," Obama said during a roundtable Monday with journalists for American Spanish-language newspapers. "The fact is, is if Latinos all across the country said, 'Until the Republican Party is willing to cooperate on bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform, we can’t support the Republican Party,” I promise you that’s something that would get the attention of the Republican Party."

"But that’s not where the energy is. So much time has been spent trying to see if we can do something administrative," Obama complained, according to*an account*by Antonieta Cadiz in*La Opinion.*"It’s as if people just give up on the idea of ever changing Republicans’ minds and, as a consequence, they don’t feel any pressure to try to do the right thing when it comes to immigration reform. That’s where the pressure needs to be applied."

During the discussion with Latino reporters, he was also asked about reports that, despite an Obama administration policy to focus deportation efforts on violent criminals, thousands of illegal immigrants have been deported due to traffic violations and drug offenses.

"One of the things that*[Immigration and Customs Enforcement]*has done is to provide more direction to its agents out on the field, in terms of what are the priorities; how are we focusing on the most serious criminals," Obama said. "That does not mean that that has all embedded itself at the operational level. So there may be still situations where there are resources being used, in terms of deporting somebody who had a DUI or had some other minor traffic violation. But overall, the direction that's being moved in is to say, look, you should prioritize."

Obama also said the administration is trying to limit the impact of immigration enforcement on families, but some of that is inevitable in the absence of legislation that would legalize some of the millions of*illegal immigrants in the U.S.

"We’re going to keep on trying to improve our administrative functions so that we’re minimizing the separation of families, so that people who are basically decent hardworking people don't get caught up in the system when we’re not focusing, when we haven’t done as good of a job as we need to, focusing on criminals who definitely need to be deported," Obama said. "But in the absence of Congress acting, there’s going to continue to be this tension and these problems."*

Here are links to*other Spanish-language*accounts of the president's roundtable, which did not appear on his public schedule but was featured briefly in a video the White House released Friday: El Nuevo Herald, Washington Hispanic*and El Tiempo Latino.

Originally Posted by Dres2011

Ron Paul.

Originally Posted by Ali

as much as I agree w/some of the guy's policies; immigration sure isn't one of them

Originally Posted by chlehqls

If he loses, then it's game over for the rest of you guys.

If he wins, we still have a sliver of a chance that something immigrant friendly related will come our way.

Originally Posted by 2Face

If Democrats don't take back senate and house, it's all over for the immigrant movement for the next 4-6 years. It is very likely that Republicans will hold on to their house majority. Sad but true. Obama has no power at all when it comes to immigration. He is just a side guy. The power hitters are the likes of Reid, Durbin, Boehner, McConnel, Graham, Schumer etc. I would really advise you all to start considering back up plans of possibly moving back if you do have the option. Otherwise you can always get married if you've met the right person. Obama has proven to be one of the biggest scams the immigrant community has witnessed. But hats off to the guy for manipulating people for his advantage. 21st century politician at his best. DREAM 2012 YES WE CAN.

Originally Posted by chessmaster05

F... You obama!!! You are the worst damn president. You lie!! I wish you lose next elections!!!

Originally Posted by MaskedLuchador

THIS.

Bring on the GOP in 2012. I don't give a fuck. Sarah Palin can call ICE, the police, her momma and her mommas daddy but I ain't going nowhere cept up and down her face with my legs and fist. And if she likes what she sees then we can take it to the bedroom.