President Obama Reaffirms Commitment to Immigration Reform

Gracias a America’s Voice

“WE HAVE TO HAVE COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM.” President Obama begins.

And after all this stalemate and silence, it’s a good, clear talk, finally, on the subject. Of course, Obama gives the nods to all the Enforcement-Junkies by being very clear that this is Not A Free Pass and there is talk of the Back of the Line and such (I hope he realizes that some of the people he’s trying to please don’t care if he says “it’s not instant amnesty or anything” cuz I have no doubt they started shrieking AAAAMNESTYYYY the moment he got six palabras into this piece). He subtly and indirectly (almost) slips in a point about himself, the POTUS, being an immigrant, as well as his aunt being one. (What’s the status on Auntie’s deportation process, anyway?)

His idea of multiple pressure points sounds intelligent and practical. I wonder how it will play out. It’s a big, sticky, inter-national agenda. But someone has to take it on sooner or later. We honestly can’t afford for things to get much worse in this area.

I do wish he’d talk a bit on the horrific conditions in detention as well as what the ICE raids are doing to communities. Sure, people cheer for “They will have to learn English” but would they cheer for “They have to be afforded the rights and protection against abuse and exploitation that we’d want our nation to show any human being”? I wonder.

If Obama locks this one down I suspect the GOP will be shut out of any sizable portion of the Latino/Hispanic vote for quite a while. And that has some pretty big implications, politically. Of course, that’s not really where my focus is in all of this. Though I sure would love to start posting on some positive news when it comes to immigrants, Mexican@s, detention centers, raids….

I also suspect that since now all can clealry see which way the winds are blowing, not only will more hesitant or previously “strategic” minded media sites feel safe in getting behind this more vocally (or at all), but so will we see more and more of these kinds of articles. (It’s a good one.)

It all helps.

(Full text of President Obama’s speech below)

THE PRESIDENT: I just met with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus today, which Congresswoman Sanchez is a member of — (applause) — to talk about this issue directly. As many of you know, during the campaign I was asked repeatedly about this, and I reiterated my belief that we have to have comprehensive immigration reform.

Now, I know this is an emotional issue, I know it’s a controversial issue, I know that the people get real riled up politically about this, but — but ultimately, here’s what I believe: We are a nation of immigrants, number one.

Number two, we do have to have control of our borders. Number three, that people who have been here for a long time and put down roots here have to have some mechanism over time to get out of the shadows, because if they stay in the shadows, in the underground economy, then they are oftentimes pitted against American workers.

Since they can’t join a union, they can’t complain about minimum wages, et cetera, they end up being abused, and that depresses the wages of everybody, all Americans. (Applause.)

So I don’t think that we can do this piecemeal. I think what we have to do is to come together and say, we’re going to strengthen our borders — and I’m going to be going to Mexico, I’m going to be working with President Calderón in Mexico to figure out how do we get control over the border that’s become more violent because of the drug trade.

We have to combine that with cracking down on employers who are exploiting undocumented workers. (Applause.) We have to make sure that there’s a verification system to find out whether somebody is legally able to work here or not. But we have to make sure that that verification system does not discriminate just because you’ve got a Hispanic last name or your last name is Obama. (Laughter.)

You’ve got to — and then you’ve got to say to the undocumented workers, you have to say, look, you’ve broken the law; you didn’t come here the way you were supposed to. So this is not going to be a free ride. It’s not going to be some instant amnesty. What’s going to happen is you are going to pay a significant fine. You are going to learn English. (Applause.)

You are going to — you are going to go to the back of the line so that you don’t get ahead of somebody who was in Mexico City applying legally. (Applause.) But after you’ve done these things over a certain period of time you can earn your citizenship, so that it’s not — it’s not something that is guaranteed or automatic. You’ve got to earn it. But over time you give people an opportunity.

Now, it only works though if you do all the pieces. I think the American people, they appreciate and believe in immigration. But they can’t have a situation where you just have half a million people pouring over the border without any kind of mechanism to control it.

So we’ve got to deal with that at the same time as we deal in a humane fashion with folks who are putting down roots here, have become our neighbors, have become our friends, they may have children who are U.S. citizens. (Applause.) That’s the kind of comprehensive approach that we have to take. All right. Okay. (Applause.)