Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Las Vegas Sol:

Obama delays action on immigration until after election

President criticized from all sides

Obama Immigration

Charles Dharapak / AP

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, speaks about immigration reform, Monday, June 30, 2014, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington.

President Barack Obama sparked the fury of immigrant advocacy organizations and drew a sigh of relief from fellow Democrats in tough midterm races this weekend when he postponed any executive action on immigration until after the November elections.

Earlier this year Obama pledged to address immigration issues from the Oval Office by the end of summer if Congress stood still. Supporters of sweeping reform of the immigration system were anticipating an announcement from the president around this time of the year, but wound up disappointed in the results

Obama, in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, said the timing is not right in part because of the increase in unaccompanied children and family units crossing the border earlier this year.

"The truth of the matter is - is that the politics did shift midsummer because of that problem," the president said on the show. "I want to spend some time, even as we're getting all our ducks in a row for the executive action, I also want to make sure that the public understands why we're doing this, why it's the right thing for the American people, why it's the right thing for the American economy."

Obama said the decision to delay action until after the elections was not predicated on helping Democratic candidates in the upcoming elections. However, it was widely postulated that executive action on immigration would invite attacks from the GOP blaming Obama, and by extension Democrats, for doing an end-around of the legislative process. Democrats running for Senate in Alaska, Louisiana, North Carolina and Arkansas are seen as particularly vulnerable.

The decision elicited reactions from all sides, much of it negative but for different reasons. Here’s a sampling from both local and national figures and organizations:

“President Obama is trying to maintain his political party's Senate power on the backs of the 1,100 immigrants who are deported every day under his watch. After the House of Representative's complete failure to do anything meaningful in regards to immigration reform, keeping families together should be the priority, not an election. It's a bitter pill to swallow to know that a handful of politicians just told thousand of immigrant families: you are expendable." – Laura Martin, Communication Director, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.

“President Obama, Senate Democrats and House Republicans have all succumbed to their political fears, avoiding what they all privately acknowledge is the right thing to do, not just for the Hispanic community, but for the country they are sworn to serve. They might rest easier tonight knowing they’ve avoided another inconvenient political problem, but I guarantee that the dreams they have shattered today will haunt them far into the future.” – Janet Murguía, President, National Council of La Raza

"For far too long House Republicans have failed to take action to fix our broken immigration system, denying 11 million undocumented immigrants, including 190,000 people in Nevada, the opportunity to come out of the shadows and pursue their American Dream. I urge my Republican colleagues to end their political games, listen to the American people, and immediately address this critical issue. If House Republican leadership refuses to allow a vote on comprehensive immigration reform, then I support the President's use of executive action." – Rep. Dina Titus, D - Las Vegas

"What's so cynical about today's immigration announcement is that the president isn't saying he'll follow the law — he's just saying he'll go around the law once it's too late for Americans to hold his party accountable in the November elections. President Obama should enforce the law, and if he would like changes, Republicans and Democrats alike have said he must work with Congress in a transparent, accountable way — not rewrite the laws on his own." – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R - Kentucky

“We are bitterly disappointed in the President and we are bitterly disappointed in the Senate Democrats. We advocates didn’t make the reform promise; we just made the mistake of believing it. The President and Senate Democrats have chosen politics over people; the status quo over solving real problems. To paraphrase the revolutionary writer Thomas Paine, these politicians are simply sunshine opportunists, who expect Latino voters to support them in good times, but when the going gets tough, they abandon Latinos and their issues as fast as you can say piñata.” – Frank Sharry, Executive Director, America’s Voice

"(T)he decision to simply delay this deeply-controversial and possibly unconstitutional unilateral action until after the election - instead of abandoning the idea altogether - smacks of raw politics.” - House Speaker John Boehner, R - Ohio

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