According to the NYT:
"President Obama will delay taking executive action on immigration until after the midterm elections, bowing to pressure from fellow Democrats who feared that acting now could doom his party’s chances this fall, White House officials said on Saturday.
The decision is a reversal of Mr. Obama’s vow to issue broad directives to overhaul the immigration system soon after summer’s end, and sparked swift anger from immigration advocates. The president made the promise on June 30, in the Rose Garden, where he angrily denounced Republican obstruction and said he would use the power of his office to protect immigrant families from the threat of deportation." . . .
The combustible nature of the immigration debate was demonstrated over the summer when the border crossings of unaccompanied children from Central America quickly became a highly charged partisan issue. Democrats on Capitol Hill warned the White House to deal with that issue before announcing broader immigration changes." . . .
Cristina Jimenez, the managing director for United We Dream, an immigration advocacy group, accused Mr. Obama of “playing politics” with the lives of immigrant families and said, “The president’s latest broken promise is another slap to the face of the Latino and immigrant community.”
. . .
"As Election Day drew closer, nervous Democratic senators in Alaska, Arkansas, Louisiana and North Carolina told White House officials that Mr. Obama’s actions could cost them victory. Those conversations culminated in the decision to delay immigration action."
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ReplyDelete44: Nor sure what you wanted to say. Let me respond to some of the implications of the post. First, I'm not saying that Obama has constitutional authority to do what he wants. I'm not really clear on what he wants to do. Second, the problems should be solved by Congress, in spite of congressional bickering. Read recently that there were now 400,000 immigration cases backed up in the federal system. Two year delays were becoming common. This is inexcusable. "Justice delayed in justice denied." Congress needs to get on this problem.
ReplyDeleteReply above, cont. The purpose of the post was to demonstrate how much "politics" influences decisions, even in the Obama administration. In spite of the promises, Obama turned out to not really be about changing the way things are done in Washington.
ReplyDeleteMy earlier message had to do with an administration and courts that, IMO, have overstepped their roles regarding current immigration law. It's neither the department of justice, state, nor the courts who get to decide the entry criteria for immigrants. I agree, congress is responsible for passing such laws which the other branches are obligated to enforce.
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