Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Pass On El Paso

Reactions to President Obama's speech in El Paso yesterday on immigration reform?  Not so good.

One Latino advocacy group -- Presente.org -- released a statement before Obama's speech criticizing the president for failing to issue an executive order stopping the deportation of young undocumented immigrants until legislation such as the DREAM Act is passed.

"All we have heard from President Obama are empty speeches," the statement said.

Republican opponents equate the measure to amnesty, and have said it would signal to the world that the United States is not serious about enforcing its laws or its borders. They have also called the bill unfair to immigrants who, in many cases, waited years to come to the country legally.

"The president will have to present a plan that takes amnesty off the table and focuses, instead, on making a real commitment to border and interior security," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said Tuesday morning.

"If the president does these two things, he will find strong bipartisan support. If he doesn't, he won't."

Anything that does give a path to citizenship will be called "amnesty" by the Republicans and blocked.  Anything that doesn't will rightfully be rejected by Latino advocacy groups.  You would think people would figure out that the problem here, as the President keeps saying, is that nothing will be acceptable to the GOP short of rounding up and deporting millions.

But no, it's all Obama's fault.

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