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Spanish- and English-speaking audiences received different messages Tuesday night during the official Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address.

Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, who delivered the Spanish-language response, advocated working on immigration reform. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst left that issue out of her remarks in English entirely.

During Ernst's response, she discussed topics including improving the economy and simplifying the tax code. The Spanish-speaking audience heard Curbelo touch on immigration as well as education and Cuba -- topics Ernst also didn't address.

"We should also work through the appropriate channels to create permanent solutions for our immigration system, to secure our borders, modernize legal immigration and strengthen our economy," Curbelo said in Spanish. "In the past the president has expressed support for ideas like these. Now we ask him to cooperate with us to realize them."

Curbelo and Ernst gave the officially sanctioned GOP responses and a statement from the House Republican Conference said the two "delivered the same Republican message."

However, the statement also noted that they each "shared their unique stories and experiences to shape that narrative."

"The Republican Spanish-language response was a unique opportunity for me to address the concerns facing our nation as a whole while also sharing my own story and experiences that help shape my personal priorities in Congress," Curbelo said Wednesday. "The Republican leadership should be applauded for encouraging us to speak on these diverse issues."

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus discussed the differences on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program Wednesday. "I don't think it's that strange to have multiple people giving multiple responses to the State of the Union," he said.

But Mother Jones reported that House Republicans initially said in a press release that Curbelo would be "delivering the Spanish-language translated address." The word "translated" no longer appears in that press release.

The only time an actual literal translation of a response was done was in 2013, when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) gave his speech in both Spanish and English, said Wadi Gaitan, press secretary for the House Republican Conference.

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GOP response to Obama speech includes immigration, but only in Spanish

Story highlights President Barack Obama didn't mention or comparatively downplayed a number of key issues in his State of the Union He mostly avoided ObamaCare and immigration reform, despite acting on those issues during his time in office He also ignored gun control and campaign finance reform, two of progressives' pet priorities

In the 70-minute-long address, the President gave only lip service to immigration reform. He made no remarks on protecting Social Security and Medicare just as Republicans have hinted at a coming battle over welfare reform and only passing reference to the crowning achievement of his first term, Obamacare, just as it's beginning to bear fruit for many Americans. And he didn't mention the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline by name, which Republicans favor as a job-creation opportunity but the White House has said Obama would veto.

READ: Obama: 'Tonight, we turn the page'

The speech was overall a rallying cry to progressives, a promise that he'll put up a fight for their priorities now that he's freed from the bounds of another reelection fight. It drew widespread praise from congressional Democrats, and near-uniform dismissal from Republicans.

But the omissions were a reminder that, though the President's popularity is on an upswing, his legacy remains unclear and his final two years in office will still be full of challenges.

The immigration reform snub was perhaps his most glaring hole. Obama only warned against "refighting past battles on immigration when we've got a system to fix," and called for empathy towards immigrants.

"Yes, passions still fly on immigration, but surely we can all see something of ourselves in the striving young student, and agree that no one benefits when a hardworking mom is taken from her child, and that it's possible to shape a law that upholds our tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants," he said during Tuesday night's speech.

That's in contrast to his 2013 State of the Union speech, when he called for Congress to pass a comprehensive reform bill and declared: "Let's get this done."

Even last year he demanded, "let's get immigration reform done this year."

On this issue, however, Obama may be feeling less urgency because he's already done some of the work on his own, with his executive action delaying deportations for millions of immigrant families last year. But the omission underscores what a prickly subject it remains politically, one that's already the center of another spending fight on Capitol Hill that will come to a head next month.

Excerpt from:
State of the Union: Silence on key issues

President Barack Obama

Sara D. Davis, istockphoto.com/EdStock

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Suppose, for a second, that politics and egos were not a factor in Washington. We would hope the Republican majority in Congress would reach across the aisle and craft an immigration bill that comes close to matching what the president did through executive order late last year.

That is, we would hope they could act with compassion, finding a way to keep immigrant families intact while legitimizing undocumented workers whose only crime is seeking a better way of life than what was available in their own troubled homelands. We would hope such a bill would grant these people work permits and allow the federal government to keep track of them, and that they could be placed on a track that helps them obtain citizenship fairly.

At the same time, we would hope the bill could tighten border security, making it easier to punish those who come here to cause mischief and emasculating the power of ruthless drug gangs who profit from crime. These are two things that even now ought to garner immediate support from both major parties.

As we said in November after President Obama announced his sweeping executive order on immigration, we are concerned with the legality of what he did. But we are more concerned with how it poisoned an already rancorous debate over what to do with millions of people who live and work in the United States without documentation.

Egos do matter in Washington. So do political considerations. Taking a cue from the presidents posture, the new Republican majority does not seem inclined to adopt anything that would legitimize his actions in November. But this doesnt mean Republicans cant come up with positive legislation of their own that does better than to relentlessly pursue people who provide work necessary for the economy.

Last week, Republican members of Congress met for a retreat in Pennsylvania. By all reports, the talk there centered on ways to completely undo Obamas executive orders on immigration, going back to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program originated in 2012. It allows undocumented people brought to the United States as children to receive work permits.

Considering these people were brought here through no fault of their own, and that they are Americans, culturally and in every other way except citizenship, forcing them to leave the country would be unusually cruel.

Read the original post:
In our opinion: How immigration reform ought to be realized in Washington

Story highlights President Barack Obama didn't mention or comparatively downplayed a number of key issues in his State of the Union He mostly avoided ObamaCare and immigration reform, despite acting on those issues during his time in office He also ignored gun control and campaign finance reform, two of progressives' pet priorities

In the 70-minute-long address, the President gave only lip service to immigration reform. He made no remarks on protecting Social Security and Medicare just as Republicans have hinted at a coming battle over welfare reform and only passing reference to the crowning achievement of his first term, Obamacare, just as it's beginning to bear fruit for many Americans. And he didn't mention the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline by name, which Republicans favor as a job-creation opportunity but the White House has said Obama would veto.

READ: Obama: 'Tonight, we turn the page'

The speech was overall a rallying cry to progressives, a promise that he'll put up a fight for their priorities now that he's freed from the bounds of another reelection fight. It drew widespread praise from congressional Democrats, and near-uniform dismissal from Republicans.

But the omissions were a reminder that, though the President's popularity is on an upswing, his legacy remains unclear and his final two years in office will still be full of challenges.

The immigration reform snub was perhaps his most glaring hole. Obama only warned against "refighting past battles on immigration when we've got a system to fix," and called for empathy towards immigrants.

"Yes, passions still fly on immigration, but surely we can all see something of ourselves in the striving young student, and agree that no one benefits when a hardworking mom is taken from her child, and that it's possible to shape a law that upholds our tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants," he said during Tuesday night's speech.

That's in contrast to his 2013 State of the Union speech, when he called for Congress to pass a comprehensive reform bill and declared: "Let's get this done."

Even last year he demanded, "let's get immigration reform done this year."

On this issue, however, Obama may be feeling less urgency because he's already done some of the work on his own, with his executive action delaying deportations for millions of immigrant families last year. But the omission underscores what a prickly subject it remains politically, one that's already the center of another spending fight on Capitol Hill that will come to a head next month.

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What wasn't in State of the Union?

After Republicans sent mixed signals on immigration in their two official rebuttals to President Barack Obamas State of the Union address, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus struggled to explain the disparity on MSNBCs Morning Joe Wednesday.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernsts State of the Union rebuttal made no mention of the topic, but the Spanish-language version of the rebuttal, delivered by Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo, said Republicans wanted to work with Obama to fix the immigration system.

Story Continued Below

I dont think its that strange to have multiple people giving multiple responses, Priebus said Wednesday on the show.

But earlier on Tuesday, House Republicans had described Curbelos response as the Spanish-Language translated address of Sen. Joni Ernst response. That language was later removed from the release, according to Mother Jones.

When asked why Ernsts English-language response made no mention of the issue, Priebus responded, I think the presidents kind of screwed things up in regards to immigration reform by overreaching, by taking his executive action.

When pressed further on how that explained the disparity, Priebus said, I think weve been talking about this executive amnesty action that the presidents taken illegally for a long time and I think until that gets resolved its very difficult to go back and conduct any other kind of immigration reform. Look, Im not the policy guy.

Speaking in Spanish Tuesday night, Curbelo said, We should also work through the appropriate channels to create permanent solutions for our immigration system, to secure our borders, modernize legal immigration, and strengthen our economy. In the past, the president has expressed support for ideas like these. Now we ask him to cooperate with us to get it done.

Curbelo has bucked many in the Republican Party to support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, while Ernst opposes that.

In an interview after the speech, Curbelo said he chose to focus on immigration as well as other issues personally important to him such as education and Cuba aside from the partys broader economic message that was reflected in Ernsts rebuttal.

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GOP talks immigration reform in Spanish, but not English