Archive for the ‘Immigration Reform’ Category

Do We Need to Reassess Our Immigration Reform Strategy?

New America Media, Commentary, Angelo Falcn , Posted: Sep 03, 2014

The immediate big question is whether President Obama will be taking decisive executive actions to stop and slow deportations before the midterm elections. A politically cautious move would be to keep promising to do so, but actually doing it sometime after November. This would make the most jittery members of his party running for reelection less jittery while continuing to make promises to Latino and other immigration advocates who otherwise have no place else to go. Or, who knows, the President might make a bold move by implementing long-overdue executive actions to keep his promises to the Latino community, with the only political benefit to him being using this to promote more unpopular impeachment talk by the Republicans. Then there is a possibility that he will come up with some weak middle ground that nobody will be happy with, except the America with Obama political triangulators.

By postponing any action on deportations until after the midterms, the President then moves the issue within the dynamics of the 2016 Presidential race. This would put more pressure on the Republicans to compromise on some form of comprehensive immigration reform. It would then increase the possibility of the President coming up with some sort of legislative solution to this problem. But will the dynamics change radically in Washington if the Democrats lose control of the Senate? No one really knows.

Within this context, there are still Latino and other immigration advocates who are holding on to the hope (some say foolishly) of comprehensive immigration reform passing the Congress in this session while at the same time pushing for unilateral action on this issue by the President. The Congressional inaction on proposals to address the issue of the unaccompanied border kids should be a clear tip-off that the future of comprehensive immigration reform through the Congress anytime soon is, pardon the pun, the stuff of dreamers.

All indications are that any Congressionally created immigration reform will be largely punitive against Latinos and other poor immigrants. The Senate bill, which was widely lauded when proposed last year, creates a bureaucratic nightmare, more of an obstacle course than a path to citizenship. And it would add to an already overly-militarized border, at a time when the Michael Brown case has raised the nation's consciousness about the negative and often deadly effects of militarizing our police. And this was the best that the Congress could produce; with even more disastrous versions emerging after it failed to get support.

Which raises the question: Does the Latino community need fundamentally to reassess our strategy for immigration reform, both from a political and policy perspective? The move to focus on what the President can accomplish unilaterally through executive action is a good first step. But the political winds in the next few years promise to be tortuous for Latinos and the country as a whole. How we navigate them as a community may require the need to get back creatively to basics.

Angelo Falcn is president of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP). He can be reached at afalcon@latinopolicy.org.

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Do We Need to Reassess Our Immigration Reform Strategy?

Ted Cruz: Only the White House is talking about a government shutdown – Video


Ted Cruz: Only the White House is talking about a government shutdown
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) spoke at the Americans for Prosperity #39;s Defending the American Dream summit Saturday afternoon. Afterwards, he took questions on Obamacare, immigration reform, constitution...

By: Washington Post

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Ted Cruz: Only the White House is talking about a government shutdown - Video

White House: Immigration action might not happen this summer

President Obama may not move on executive actions for immigration reform this summer, the White House concededon Tuesday.

"It's hard for me to at least at this point draw any clear conclusions about what the president's timing will be," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. "There is the chance that it could be before the end of the summer. There is the chance that it could be after the summer."

During a Rose Garden address earlier this year, Obama told reporters he expected recommendations from top administration officials "before the end of summer" and planned to adopt them "without further delay."

But the president last week sidestepped questions on whether the timetable for executive actions could be pushed back.

Obama hinted that developing the administrations response to this summer's surge in migrant children crossing the border could affect progress on broader immigration reform efforts.

Some of these things do affect timelines and we're just going to be working through as systematically as possible in order to get this done, Obama said. But have no doubt: In the absence of congressional action, I'm going to do what I can to make sure the system works better.

Earnest on Tuesday said the president was "basing this decision much more" on the substantive issues at hand, and that the administration was not "focused" on the politics behind the issue.

He also argued that the eventual moves were much more important "than the timing."

"What the president is concerned about is doing the best that he can to address as many problems as he can," Earnest said.

But Earnest conceded there was "no doubt that the White House has demonstrated our desire" to help Democrats battling for their political lives.

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White House: Immigration action might not happen this summer

OBAMA on U.S. IMMIGRATION CRISIS – Might Use EXECUTIVE ORDER to Bring IMMIGRATION REFORM – Video


OBAMA on U.S. IMMIGRATION CRISIS - Might Use EXECUTIVE ORDER to Bring IMMIGRATION REFORM
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OBAMA on U.S. IMMIGRATION CRISIS - Might Use EXECUTIVE ORDER to Bring IMMIGRATION REFORM - Video

Fund We Do Need Comprehensive Immigration Reform, But Not In The Way Congress Wants It – Video


Fund We Do Need Comprehensive Immigration Reform, But Not In The Way Congress Wants It

By: alex jones

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Fund We Do Need Comprehensive Immigration Reform, But Not In The Way Congress Wants It - Video