Thread: Exclusive: Obama to hold town hall meeting on immigration

02/20/15 09:30 AM—UPDATED 02/20/15 03:07 PM


By Amanda Sakuma


Despite setbacks from a federal court decision and a determined GOP Congress aimed at blocking his sweeping executive actions, President Obama plans to forge ahead by speaking directly to the immigrant community that must now weather yet another delay to protections from deportation.


The president will hold a town hall meeting in Miami on Wednesday to address the Latino community after a Texas judge temporarily blocked the immigration actions from moving forward this week. The event, presented in both English and Spanish and held at Florida International University (FIU), will be led by Telemundo and MSNBC host José Díaz-Balart.


“We’ve chosen this town hall forum because the president has a desire to engage in a genuine conversation about issues important to the community,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told msnbc. The televised event will also provide Obama a platform to reach Latinos across the country, Earnest continued, while engaging with Miami’s vast immigrant community. “It makes for an interesting, dynamic place and a great symbol of how immigration has made our country unique.”




Obama first introduced his executive actions to great fanfare last November by extending temporary work status and a shield from deportation to more than 4 million undocumented immigrants. The unilateral actions were met with swift resistance from Republicans who believed the president overstepped his authority by protecting broad swaths of the U.S.’s undocumented immigrant population. In Congress, Republicans have sought a strategy to starve the Department of Homeland Security’s funding in efforts to unravel the unilateral actions. And this week, the measures hit a major hurdle when U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen sided with a lawsuit brought by 26 states, and issued a preliminary injunction on the unilateral actions.


The decision marked a crushing blow to hundreds of thousands of young, undocumented immigrants who had waited months for the first day of enrollment to open up. Instead, just one day before the program was slated to launch, administration officials announced on Tuesday they would comply with the judge’s orders and postpone the executive actions indefinitely.


The Obama administration remains adamant that the law is on its side and that the executive actions will ultimately move forward as planned. The Justice Department swiftly responded to the ruling by announcing Tuesday that officials plan to appeal Judge Hanen’s decision. “We will continue to press this through the legal process, and we are confident that this will prevail,” Earnest said. But days out from the judge’s decision, administration officials still could not say what action the DOJ planned to take.
One option promoted by some advocacy groups would be for the Justice Department to request an emergency stay from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. But still, the administration’s arguments would have to sway a three-judge panel of conservatives in New Orleans, in a process that would likely take a matter of weeks. And even if the appeals court lifts the injunction, it’s likely that further appeals would kick the issue up the chain to the Supreme Court.


Even in the best case scenario for the administration, time is not on its side.


In a 123-page ruling issued around midnight Monday, Judge Hanen did not directly question presidential powers or Obama’s authority to use prosecutorial discretion in determining how the administration carries out immigration laws set by Congress. Instead, Hanen said the administration ultimately failed to comply with a small procedural step in failing to seek comments from the public before implementing the new programs.


Hanen largely sided with arguments brought by the 26 states that the unilateral measures will cause a resource drain for local governments. “The court finds that the government’s failure to secure the border has exacerbated illegal immigration into this country,” he wrote. “Further, the record supports the finding that this lack of enforcement, combined with this country’s high rate of illegal immigration, significantly drains the states’ resources.”


“We’ve chosen this town hall forum because the president has a desire to engage in a genuine conversation about issues important to the community.”


WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY JOSH EARNEST


The Texas judge’s decision is likely to fan flames in Republican efforts to dismantle the president’s measures through a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security. Congressional Republicans hit a roadblock when Democrats in the Senate filibustered a bill to keep DHS running through September on the condition of rolling back the president’s executive actions on immigration both past and present. Lawmakers have just until Feb. 27 to avert a DHS shutdown.


The looming shutdown and recent court ruling triggered rounds of rallies across the country this week as undocumented immigrants protested Republican-led efforts to roll back protections.


“The baseless Republican lawsuit is just another desperate attempt to delay the inevitable, and to keep people like my mother living in fear of deportation,” Cristina Jimenez, managing director of United We Dream said in a statement Thursday, pressing for the administration to file for an emergency stay. “As Republicans continue pushing their mass-deportation agenda in the courts and on Capitol Hill, it is the President’s responsibility to act immediately, use every resource available to ensure that millions of people will be able to be protected from deportation immediately.”

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/exclusive...ng-immigration

by Charlie Spiering
20 Feb 2015

As the funding deadline for the Department of Homeland Security approaches, President Obama plans to go after Republicans directly for trying to use the fight to block his executive actions on immigration reform.

The White House announced a town hall meeting on immigration together with MSNBC’s Latino host José Díaz-Balart and the Spanish language news network Telemundo.

“We’ve chosen this town hall forum because the president has a desire to engage in a genuine conversation about issues important to the community,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, as he announced the event. The televised event will also provide Obama a platform to reach Latinos across the country.

The event will be held next Wednesday in Miami, to highlight the state’s immigration community. That’s two days before the funding deadline for DHS.

The White House decision to highlight Obama’s actions on immigration is the latest effort to overcome a setback to his plans after a Federal District Court in Texas put his amnesty plan on hold. The administration says it will appeal the decision to a higher court.

Members of the Obama administration say it’s important to fund the Department of Homeland Security. But Senate Democrats have refused to allow a House-passed DHS funding bill that blocks amnesty to come to the floor for consideration.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...n-immigration/

“We’ve chosen this town hall forum because the president has a desire to engage in a genuine conversation about issues important to the community,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, as he announced the event. The televised event will also provide Obama a platform to reach Latinos across the country.

The event will be held next Wednesday in Miami, to highlight the state’s immigration community. That’s two days before the funding deadline for DHS.

Yeah, that's good Barack, because the more attention you draw to yourself on this issue, the more Americans who will become activists to stop your treasonous butt. By the way, who is paying for his trip to Florida to attend this town hall to meet with illegal aliens in our country in violation of the US immigration law and offer them amnesty, work authorizations, public benefits and tax refunds for taxes they never paid, in violation of US immigration, US labor, US civil rights and US tax law?

It better not be US taxpayers paying for this trip. He needs to get the money for this one from the drug cartels behind this travesty, and he better not be traveling on Air Force One, either. We don't provide travel budgets, aircraft and Secret Service protection for a President to hand out amnesty, jobs, benefits and tax credits to illegal aliens.

It wont be a Town Hall meeting for real and anyone expressing the views of the majority of America's citizens wont be allowed to speak or ask questions. I could personally politically destroy Obama for all time in under 5 minutes of unmoderated live debate on camera.

W

" the community" Code word for anchor babies and illegal aliens.

Originally Posted by Mayday

" the community" Code word for anchor babies and illegal aliens.

Exactly! What is this with the word "community"? That word is seen more often in illegal alien and immigration discussions than all others combined. I was thinking about that just the other day. The word "community" is a socialist, communist word. You rarely hear it in American circles, if we talk about a neighborhood of a city, we speak about a neighborhood or region, if we talk about a city, we say city, or county, we say county, or state, state, or country, nation or country. We do not use that word "community" on any kind of a normal or regular basis. Sometimes, 501 C 3's name "charity" centers, "community centers" or something like that, but in our every day speak, we do not use that word.

And the reason is simple, our country is based on individual rights, not communal rights. Our nation is not an organized collective community of sameness, likeness, common interests, and so forth. The word community is not only a code word for foreign lawbreakers, it's an actual word derived from the root word commune, which is a communist ideal, not an American goal. Americans use the word people to speak in general about our nation's people and that is rare unless we're fighting the madness of our government, and in normal course we are not unified, beyond our general support for the rule of law, common sense, intelligence, sustainability, jobs, wages and taxes, and even then, there is no "community", because of the diversity of characters and ideas, representative of our foundation of individual liberty.

So there is no "immigrant community" in the United States. There are immigrants and there are illegal aliens, and none of them agree even amongst themselves on a variety of issues, immigrants are just as opposed to legalization of illegal aliens as Americans, not because of a "community", but because they know as individuals, they'll lose their job to an illegal alien if this goes through.

Thank you mayday for raising this important point about the choice of words being used by the White House. It exposes even more of his core thoughts which reveals his lack of values.

Originally Posted by Judy

[I] immigrants are just as opposed to legalization of illegal aliens as Americans, not because of a "community", but because they know as individuals, they'll lose their job to an illegal alien if this goes through.

The current illegals will try to move up, the next wave of illegals will undercut the poorest Americans for entry level jobs. That will guarantee another generation of confusion and anger for our own people.

I think that most black Americans thought that 'Bama would be their savior. But it was obvious from the start that he cared more about his precious Undocumented Democrats than he ever would care about the poorest Americans.
****************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

Originally Posted by vistalad

The current illegals will try to move up, the next wave of illegals will undercut the poorest Americans for entry level jobs. That will guarantee another generation of confusion and anger for our own people.

I think that most black Americans thought that 'Bama would be their savior. But it was obvious from the start that he cared more about his precious Undocumented Democrats than he ever would care about the poorest Americans.
****************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

My heart breaks for black Americans who had so much hope for the future through the election of the first Black President. You could see the pride in their eyes and a sense of relief that finally someone would be in the White House who could better understand their situation. But tragically if he did understand their situation, he didn't care, because his policies have done the complete opposite of what they thought he would do.

By Patricia Mazzei
02/25/2015 7:09 AM

For President Barack Obama, it has become a torturous routine — appearing on Spanish-language television to try to defend his record on reshaping the nation’s immigration laws.

On each occasion, he has been reminded that he broke his 2008 campaign promise to reform the system and that his administration is on track to deport more people than any other president in U.S. history.

Yet he will go at it again Wednesday in Miami, a majority Hispanic city in America’s largest swing state, this time in an attempt to reassure people in the country illegally that his latest executive action, which would shield up to five million people from deportation, stands on strong legal footing. A federal judge in Texas temporarily suspended the order last week, ruling that the president had overstepped his power. The Justice Department has appealed.

“My administration will fight this ruling with every tool at our disposal, and I have full confidence that these actions will ultimately be upheld,” Obama wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday by The Hill.

The president is expected to take questions Wednesday directly from undocumented immigrants at the taping of an event at Florida International University that will later air nationally on Miami-based Telemundo and sister network MSNBC. He will also likely address the Homeland Security Department budget, which is pending in Congress amid a political fight over funding Obama’s executive immigration actions. A Friday deadline looms.

“President Obama is on defense over his immigration overreach and is struggling to find a legal response to a federal court blocking his unprecedented executive action,” Ruth Guerra, director of Hispanic media for the Republican National Committee, said in a statement. “So he’s doing the only thing he knows how to do: hit the campaign trail.”

Though billed as a “town hall,” tickets for Wednesday’s private event were distributed by organizers and not made publicly available. Telemundo and MSNBC rented the public Graham Center facility at FIU’s main campus for about $39,000, according to a copy of the contract.

Obama’s visit comes at a time when his legacy on immigration is in danger. Unable since 2009 to convince Congress to give the nation’s up to 12 million undocumented immigrants permanent legal status, he has used his powers to force the issue in the twilight of his presidency.

The first Obama immigration order, signed in 2012 and known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, remains in effect. The second, signed in November to expand DACA and establish Deferred Action for Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, or DAPA, was halted in Texas as part of a lawsuit filed by 26 states, including Florida.

Those actions — one granting temporary legal status to people brought into the country illegally as children, the other expanding that program and creating a new one applying to parents of U.S. citizens and residents — appear likely to be Obama’s only legacy on immigration, which has already become entangled in a new presidential campaign.

Consider the reception Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential presidential candidate who pushed for immigration reform in 2013, got on his recent book tour.

In Miami last Friday, Rubio was heckled — and given the middle finger — by young immigration activists who faulted him for not doing more to help the undocumented. In New Hampshire three days later, a Republican bluntly asked Rubio if he would commit to deporting everyone who’s in the country illegally, a suggestion the senator called unrealistic.

“I’m the only one who gets heckled by both sides of the immigration debate,” Rubio had concluded in Miami.

Come September, the date of the first scheduled Republican presidential debate, forget anyone in Congress proposing immigration legislation, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart told the Miami Herald’s editorial board Monday. One of his brothers, Telemundo and MSNBC anchor José Díaz-Balart, will moderate the Obama interview.

“The right goes further to the right. The left goes further to the left,” the Miami Republican said. “The possibility of meeting in the middle vanishes.”

None of the Miami Republicans in Congress — Diaz-Balart and Reps. Carlos Curbelo and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen — need persuading from the president to support reforms. But they have criticized how Obama, who didn’t push an immigration law when both chambers of Congress were controlled by Democrats, has now sidestepped the legislative branch altogether.

“Obama is not the only culprit,” Diaz-Balart said. “But he’s not been helpful.”

Immigration advocates know they’ve been “played” politically, said Cristina Jimenez, co-founder and managing director for United We Dream, who plans to attend Wednesday’s event.

“It’s really difficult to forget” the number of deportations under Obama — more than 1.6 million — said Jimenez, whose parents brought her to New York from Ecuador illegally when she was 13. But Republicans have not found a way to speak to the immigrant community, added Jimenez, who is now a legal resident.

“Right now, he’s the only one who’s proposed a solution,” she said. “Even though it’s temporary.”

PRESIDENTIAL TRAFFIC ALERT

Motorists can expect delays on Wednesday afternoon in and around Florida International University and Miami International Airport during President Barack Obama’s visit.

The event, billed as a “town hall,” will be taped at FIU and later aired nationally on Miami-based Telemundo and sister network MSNBC on Wednesday night.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/poli...e11101739.html