In Florida, Obama Assails Republicans Over Immigration Policy

melody · 06-22-2012, 03:51 PM

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – President Obama assailed Republicans on Friday as obstacles to fixing the nation’s immigration system and said his opponent would block efforts to let young immigrants stay if they were brought into the United States illegally by their parents.

In what amounted to the general election campaign’s first debate on immigration policy, Mr. Obama appeared before the same Latino audience that heard from his challenger, Mitt Romney, a day earlier and told them they should not trust the Republican’s shifting rhetoric.

The president touted his own decision last week to stop kicking many young immigrants out of the country, saying he was “lifting the shadow of deportation” from people who deserved to stay in the United States. By contrast, he pointed to Mr. Romney’s opposition to legislation known as the Dream Act intended to offer a path to legal status for many of the same young people.

“It’s long past time we gave them a sense of hope,” the president said of those spared by his action. “Now, your speaker from yesterday has a different view. In his speech, he said when he makes a promise he’ll keep it. Well, he’s promised to veto the Dream Act and we should taken him at his word. I’m just saying. I believe that would be a tragic mistake.”

Mr. Obama noted that Republican opposition blocked passage of the Dream Act in 2010 and lamented that Republicans who supported more expansive legislation just a few years ago have now abandoned the issue. “Those same Republicans have been driven away from the table by a small faction in their own party,” he said.

Mr. Romney’s camp focused on economic issues in their response on Friday. “No election-year speech can cover up the president’s job-killing policies that have led to 11 percent Hispanic unemployment and millions of Hispanics living in poverty,” Amanda Henneberg, a Romney spokeswoman, said in a statement. “On day one, Mitt Romney will take our country in a new direction and get our economy back on the right track.”

Mr. Obama’s speech to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials was framed to capitalize on last week’s decision, bolstering support from a critical constituency that leans strongly in his direction but has been disappointed that he had not taken stronger action to liberalize immigration rules. Mr. Obama has deported more illegal immigrants than any other president, while in the face of Republican resistance he has done relatively little to push broader legislation providing a path to legal status for millions more in the country without permission.

“Congress still needs to come up with a comprehensive immigration solution, rather than argue that we did this the wrong way or for the wrong reasons,” he said. “To those who say Congress should be the one to fix this, absolutely. To those who say we should do this in a bipartisan way, absolutely. My door’s been open for 3-1/2 years. They know where to find me.”

Mr. Obama received a warmer response from the audience than Mr. Romney did on Thursday, with those in attendance at times standing to give him ovations. But a conservative Hispanic leader said the president’s words rang hollow to him given the lack of progress in forging a bipartisan solution.

“Where is the leadership?” asked Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. He said President George W. Bush did a better job of working across the aisle on immigration and argued that Mr. Romney would be more likely to find a solution with a Republican Congress next year.

“We have a better chance of getting something constructive done in immigration with Romney than Obama,” Mr. Aguilar said.

After his remarks, Mr. Obama left for Tampa, where he planned to make a campaign speech.

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2.../?ref=politics

Feenmi · 06-22-2012, 04:17 PM

I cannot wait for the debates....

Quote:

"Your speaker from yesterday has a different view. In his speech he said when he makes a promise to you,he'll keep it. Well, he has promised to veto the Dream Act," Obama said Friday at the National Association for Elected and Appointed Officials conference.

"And we should take him at his word," he continued with a shrug, to laughter and cheers from the crowd. "I'm just saying."

The audience,largely made up of Latinos, repeatedly applauded, laughed and stood for the president. Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, spoke at the NALEO conference on Thursday,receiving a warm reception but one far surpassed by the response to Obama.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobile...n_1619126.html