More Senate Democrats urge Obama to delay immigration order

More top Democrats are pressuring President Barack Obama to slow down on immigration reform, further diminishing the chances that he’ll take sweeping administrative action before Election Day.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) wants Obama to wait until after November. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said he has “concerns about executive action.” Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with Democrats, said it would be a “mistake” for the president to do anything significant.

Until now, few Democrats have been willing to break publicly with Obama over his vow to issue an executive order on immigration. Democratic incumbents in this year’s most competitive Senate races have already voiced concern, but the calls from others to hold off on acting suggests Democrats are growing even more anxious about the decision and its potential to upend the fight for control of the Senate.
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White House officials have been locked in an intense debate over whether Obama should announce a program to defer deportations for millions of undocumented immigrants before Election Day. A delay would mark a major reversal from June, when the president stood in the Rose Garden and pledged to issue an order by the end of the summer, and it would infuriate the Hispanic community.
But the flagging support among senators is particularly worrisome to the White House, which will be reluctant to make such a controversial move without the strong backing of congressional Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declined Thursday to say that Obama should act ahead of the election — a noncommittal posture that reflects the deep divisions within his caucus.
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“The decision is the president’s,” Reid said in an interview at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas. “I’m confident he’s going to do something. He has to decide when he’s going to do it.”
White House officials insist the president has not yet decided what to do on immigration or when he will do it. Senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and chief domestic policy adviser Cecilia Muñoz delivered that message in a round of calls this week to immigration advocacy groups and labor leaders.
The personal attention has done little to soothe the activists, who are furious over the White House’s handling of the decision.
“Our community is done with broken promises,” said Lorella Praeli, director of advocacy and policy for United We Dream. “There are real consequences in the community.”
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At a Capitol Hill meeting Wednesday, a Reid aide warned advocates to not attack the vulnerable Senate Democrats from Alaska, Louisiana, Arkansas and North Carolina who have urged the president to go slow. Efforts to publicly pressure the group would most likely backfire, the aide warned. Those Democrats won’t want to support Obama once he does issue an order, whenever it comes, and that could compel him to go with a smaller package because of the limited political support, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
Reid’s office declined to comment on the meeting.
Henry Cisneros, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Bill Clinton and a national Hispanic leader, said reform proponents “should be understanding” if the order were delayed.
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“Obviously, it would be good if that relief came sooner than later. But we also have to understand how interlaced this is with the election,” Cisneros said in an interview at the Las Vegas energy conference. “We’ve got to be attentive to the possibility that this action of the president could bear on North Carolina, on Arkansas, and Alaska and a handful of other states. And therefore we should be understanding of the president’s logic that this is something that should wait beyond the election. And I think if that’s the course he chooses, I would express that understanding.”


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/0...#ixzz3CSQmqQO2

I hate to say it,but what does the President have to gain from doing this before the election or after for that matter. Immigration is one big political tool that no one wants to fix. Even with advocates leaning on Obama to get this done, there is nothing they have to pressure him with, lets face it IF he doesn't do anything will that stop the hispanic vote from voting for Democrats,I think not because they will always be the lesser of two evils... And lets say he does an AO, I bet the democrats will lose in the 2016 Presidential elections & the Republicans will undo everything including DACA....now if he waits closer until the Presidential elections and the Dems are down in the polls,he will craft some form of relief that will bind well with voters. I find it funny that no one has leaked anything about his plans on the estimated relief of the undocumented.

Obama already got the second term he wanted. Our use to him is over. The democrats know no matter what the Hispanic group that can vote will always vote democrats because of the reputation republicans have already. Maybe he's afraid granting work status to millions of people will cause some huge turmoil in the govwrm

Face it, our choices are either the party of "we'll make your life a living hell until you self deport" and the party of " we would love to have you as future voters and will throw you a bone when it doesn't hurt our chances of getting elected. "

Obama will wait and democrats still going to lose control of the senate. STUPID DEMOCRATS.

I couldn't have said it better.