The President's broken promise

LOL for those of you that think Obama really cares about you guys after three years.. Of course he does, i heard the election year is also this year...Wasn it so pretty when he became the President on that evening, ah the memories

Navarrette: The president's broken promise
By Ruben Navarrette
Posted January 28, 2012 at 3 p.m.
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What chutzpah. President Obama is trying to turn one of his major liabilities — his cruel, cynical, dishonest and clumsy handling of the immigration issue — into a liability for Republicans.

Having broken his promise to make immigration reform a priority, divided countless families with a record 1.2 million deportations, and attempted to deceive Latinos into believing that most of the people removed were criminals when the figures say otherwise, Obama now wants Latinos to believe that the real villains are Republicans in Congress.

It's a bold move for a president whose job approval rating with Latinos has fallen to 49 percent, according to a recent poll by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Obama seems to think that the best card to play is to profess his support for the Dream Act, a bill that would provide undocumented students with a pathway to citizenship if they attend college or join the military. According to polls, the legislation has the support of about 80 percent of Latinos.

But you always need to ignore what Obama says and watch what he does — or doesn't do.

In his recent State of the Union address, here's what Obama said:

"Let's also remember that hundreds of thousands of talented, hardworking students in this country face another challenge: the fact that they aren't yet American citizens. Many were brought here as small children, are American through and through, yet they live every day with the threat of deportation."

Not just the threat. Under the Obama administration, many high school and college students have been deported. Others were slated for deportation and escaped that fate only because lawyers successfully pleaded their cases, the media told their stories, or activists rallied to their side.

Obama went on to say:

"I believe as strongly as ever that we should take on illegal immigration. That's why my administration has put more boots on the border than ever before. That's why there are fewer illegal crossings than when I took office. The opponents of action are out of excuses. We should be working on comprehensive immigration reform right now."

Why the rush? The president had three years to push for comprehensive immigration reform, and, for two of those years, his party controlled both houses of Congress. The new sense of urgency comes from the fact that we're in an election year, and Obama knows a campaign issue when he sees one.

Finally, he said:

"But if election-year politics keeps Congress from acting on a comprehensive plan, let's at least agree to stop expelling responsible young people who want to staff our labs, start new businesses, defend this country. Send me a law that gives them the chance to earn their citizenship. I will sign it right away."

Seriously? Just who is "expelling" these young people? It's Barack Obama and his administration. The executive branch carries out the enforcement of immigration law, which includes deporting illegal immigrants. Congress has nothing to do with it. Obama has the power, through executive order, to reprioritize deportations so that students go to the bottom of the stack. He has tried to do some of that. And yet it's too little, too late.

Obama's remarks only resonate if the people hearing them have short memories.

They aren't supposed to remember that, during an interview last March with Univision's Jorge Ramos, Obama insisted that his administration isn't deporting students eligible for the Dream Act, only to be confronted by Ramos who produced video of a Dream Act student holding a deportation order.

Or that, in December 2010, Obama stood idly by as five members of his own party — Senate Democrats Jon Tester and Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, and Ben Nelson of Nebraska — killed an earlier version of the Dream Act by denying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid the 60 votes he needed to prevent a possible GOP filibuster.

Was this just another leadership failure by Obama, or something more sinister? If those five Democrats had fallen in line and the Senate had passed the Dream Act, Obama would have been in the tough spot of having to sign a controversial bill that many voters oppose. Democrats in the House and Senate could have paid a price in the 2012 election. And Democrats wouldn't have an issue around which to rally Hispanic voters.

What if the Senate Democrats who killed the Dream Act were just following orders?

If you think this isn't a possibility, then you're the one who is dreaming.

Ruben Navarrette's email address is [email protected].

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Just an opinion from Ruben Navarrette, this guy is a flip flopper, one moment hes on the president's side and the next hes bashing him. He clearly does not a small understanding of how politics work.

If Pelosi regains her seat as a speaker once again there is a high chance that the DA will pass the House once again. You cannot blame the president alone for the failure of DA passing the senate floor. People are selfish by nature, and what benefits them will have things that work in their favor gain support. I like Obama over the other nominees and his support for DA never changed from his senate history to being president.

Couldn't agree more

Would you rather have Romney who has promised to VETO the dream act? Because in the political climate today, that's your alternative. I'd rather have a president who at least is on our side even if self preservation prevents him from acting too aggressively on it.

But on this opinion Navarrete is absolutely right. May be he is on the president's side when the president is doing something right. thats something that we all do.

Good article, I almost forgot about past 3 years of non-action from dems and Obama.

Mhhm at this point im not sure... Obama has promised to pass the Dream Act during the campaign, i think he said within a year? Romney has promised to veto the Dream Act, maybe he will pass it within a year? lol

Maybe Romney does not mean what he says, just like Obama.....

I thought i would never say this, but Bush and Republicans were much closer to passing Comprehensive then Obama has, wait it actually did pass the Senate, was it 2007? Then failed in the House

Funny you mention this, right now it looks like the Democrats have a very good chance at taking back the House, since all they need is 25 more seats. The Democrats will use the Tea baggers as their man nuke to get them out of office. They will remind America that they did nothing but bring up anti-abortion/racial profiling bills to the senate or just in general, bills to keep their Corporate Gods fatter. This will be a very interesting election year. I however, think that Democrats have a good chance at losing the Senate, so many Democratic Senators are up for re-election or some are just retiring