Thread: Obama Talks Education to HISPANIC C of C

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ ... dt.01.html


President Obama today leaving little doubt he intends to pursue a pro amnesty agenda. He sent a very strong message as he started talking about an issue that should be of interest to all of us, that is education. President Obama according to pro illegal alien movement with a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on the subject of education. Education, a major concern one would think for all Americans whatever their ethnicity or race. That's the way I remember it. Lisa Sylvester has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An enthusiastic audience chanted in Spanish for President Obama as he unveiled his vision for education reform at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce conference, more money for early childhood programs, raising school standards, new funding for "No Child Left Behind", and merit pay for teachers.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've let our grades slip. Our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us.

SYLVESTER: The president told the audience that workers without a four-year college degree have borne the brunt of recent layoffs with Latinos topping the list. His message was well received by the Hispanic business group, but some wanted more.

MARIO LIZAMA, COALITION FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM (through translator): The only thing I would say is that he missed talking about immigration reform. Clearly, it is very interesting that they are creating jobs, but if there really are 12 million undocumented workers that are part of the labor force, we need migratory reform in order to give work permits to people, opportunities of being legal.

SYLVESTER: With the economy sinking and millions of job lost, the president is under pressure to clamp down on illegal immigration and protect the jobs of American workers. Groups pushing for tighter immigration policies are not optimistic that will happen. As a sign, the venue that Mr. Obama chose for his national education speech, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports a temporary moratorium on immigration says President Obama should avoid the appearance of pandering to win the Hispanic vote.

DAN STEIN, FED. FOR AMER. IMMIG. REFORM: We don't want the president to make it appear as if he's favoring one particular group in the disposition of public benefits at a time when everyone's going to be cutting back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYLVESTER: And in his speech, President Obama said Latino workers without a college degree have been hurt the most by the economic downturn. But in fact when you look at the overall unemployment numbers, in fact the rate for African-Americans without a college degree is 20 percent compared to native foreign Hispanics at 13.5 percent -- Lou.

DOBBS: Lisa, I mean is anybody -- I don't know what's happened to this White House, but the wheels appear to have come completely off here over the last several days. Making a decision to talk about a national initiative on education from the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is effectively an organization that is interested in the export of American capital and production to Mexico, and Mexico's export of drugs and illegal aliens to the United States. This is crazy stuff.

SYLVESTER: Well if you think about it, the administration could have chosen a school -- there are some other logical places where they could have chosen to do this major education speech, but it is kind of telling. And some groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform believe that it's telegraphing something, telegraphing that Obama really -- President Obama really would like to have the Hispanic vote.

DOBBS: Yes, it's remarkable and it's clear that group and identity politics at least at this stage are high on the president's agenda if not on the American agenda. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Lisa Sylvester.

DOBBS: Lisa, I mean is anybody -- I don't know what's happened to this White House, but the wheels appear to have come completely off here over the last several days. Making a decision to talk about a national initiative on education from the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is effectively an organization that is interested in the export of American capital and production to Mexico, and Mexico's export of drugs and illegal aliens to the United States. This is crazy stuff.

If an industry here can only make a profit by using illegal labor it should relocate to Mexico.