Obama Invokes Hannity: Even He Thinks Immigration Reforms a Good Idea!
Obama Invokes Hannity: Even He Thinks Immigration Reform #39;s a Good Idea!
By: Po912
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Obama Invokes Hannity: Even He Thinks Immigration Reforms a Good Idea! - Video
Immigration has been a hotly contested issue in recent years, touched off in 2006 by a proposal from then-President George W. Bush to grant undocumented immigrants guest-worker status. Subsequently, Bush was a proponent both of stronger policing of the border and of a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants.
In 2007, Bush supported a bill containing both measures called the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, which stalled in the Senate, despite having bipartisan authorship.
Federal immigration reform has not yet been enacted during President Obamas tenure. The most recent effort is the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, a bill whose sweeping provisions include stronger border enforcement and citizenship opportunities for undocumented immigrants. Though the bill passed the Senate in June 2013, the House of Representatives has not yet addressed it.
Meanwhile, the number of immigrants deported by customs officials has steadily increased under Obama, with more than 2 million removed from the United States in the last six years.
Immigrant advocacy groups have nicknamed the president the deporter-in-chief.
Yet in 2012, Obama issued an executive order that directed customs and border patrol agents to defer detainment and deportation for children who were brought to the country illegally, known as DREAMers. The order, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, also authorizes DREAMers to work in the United States. DACA does not provide a path to citizenship, and, as an executive order, must be renewed by whoever follows Obama in 2017.
Earlier this year, a border crisis developed where thousands of Central American children flooded into the United States, accompanied by their mothers or by no one at all. Believing that they would receive special treatment as minors, the immigrants overwhelmed the American courts, which are obligated by federal law to provide due process to unaccompanied minors who are not from Canada or Mexico.
Spurred by legislative inaction, Obama said in June that he would issue new executive orders on immigration reform. Last month, with midterm elections looming and crucial Democratic seats in the balance, Obama announced that he would delay the orders until after November.
Through most of this time, immigration reform bills have included all or parts of the prooposed 2001 DREAM Act, a bipartisan bill intended to provide legal residency for foreign nationals who arrived as minors. DREAM, an acronym for Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, eventually grew in the lexicon to refer to the people it proposed to sponsor: DREAMers.
Though Congress has passed no such bill, as of May, versions of the law that extend in-state tuition to undocumented immigrant students are in effect in 18 states. New Hampshire is not one of them, nor if Vermont. But the Green Mountain State did recently allow undocumented immigrants to apply for a drivers license.
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Efforts to Reform Immigration Policy Have Faltered
Progress Illinois: Immigration Reform Activists Protest During Obama #39;s Visit
While President Barack Obama spoke about the economy Thursday at Northwestern University, about two-dozen immigration reform advocates protested outside, cal...
By: Progress Illinois
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Progress Illinois: Immigration Reform Activists Protest During Obama's Visit - Video
updated 9:54 AM EDT, Fri October 3, 2014
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama told Hispanic leaders and immigration reform activists Thursday that despite frustrations with the delays in fixing the country's immigration system, he's going to need them to have his back.
After punting on taking executive action on immigration until after the midterms, Obama pledged Thursday evening at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute that he will act on immigration before the end of the year.
"The moment I act -- and it will be taking place between the November election and the end of the year -- opponents of reform will roll out the same old scare tactics," Obama said. "And when opponents are out there saying who knows what, I'm going to need you to have my back."
Obama was interrupted by one heckler that The Hill newspaper identified as Blanca Hernandez, an undocumented immigrant activist, who shouted "we need relief now" and was escorted out by security.
Obama emphasized Thursday that he can't accomplish real, long-term change without what he called the "powerful" Latino vote.
"Si se puede, si votamos. Yes we can, if we vote," Obama told the crowd to applause.
That rallying call, reminiscent of his 2008 campaign slogan, piles on top of Democratic efforts to mobilize lackluster Latinos who appear less likely to support Democrats in November despite strong backing in recent cycles, according to the Washington Post.
"Nothing I can do will be as comprehensive or lasting as the Senate bill. Anything I can do can be reversed by the next President," Obama said.
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Obama to immigration activists: Cover me
WASHINGTON (CNN) -
President Barack Obama told Hispanic leaders and immigration reform activists Thursday that despite frustrations with the delays in fixing the country's immigration system, he's going to need them to have his back.
After punting on taking executive action on immigration until after the midterms, Obama pledged Thursday evening at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute that he will act on immigration before the end of the year.
"The moment I act -- and it will be taking place between the November election and the end of the year -- opponents of reform will roll out the same old scare tactics," Obama said. "And when opponents are out there saying who knows what, I'm going to need you to have my back."
Obama was interrupted by one heckler that The Hill newspaper identified as Blanca Hernandez, an undocumented immigrant activist, who shouted "we need relief now" and was escorted out by security.
Obama emphasized Thursday that he can't accomplish real, long-term change without what he called the "powerful" Latino vote.
"Si se puede, si votamos. Yes we can, if we vote," Obama told the crowd to applause.
That rallying call, reminiscent of his 2008 campaign slogan, piles on top of Democratic efforts to mobilize lackluster Latinos who appear less likely to support Democrats in November despite strong backing in recent cycles, according to the Washington Post.
"Nothing I can do will be as comprehensive or lasting as the Senate bill. Anything I can do can be reversed by the next president," Obama said.
While Obama pushed back his plans for executive action this summer and a bipartisan Senate bill on immigration reform last year failed to pick up steam in the House, Obama insisted that his administration has done a lot to benefit Latinos in his nearly six years in office.
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President says he'll act on immigration before end of year