Thread: Facing long odds, Obama vows immigration push

Obama told Hispanic Caucus members that he’ll renew his push for immigration reform in 2011.

Facing long odds, Obama vows immigration push


Rep. Charles Gonzalez says Obama was 'looking to us for our input for what would happen in the House,' of his meeting with the CHC.

By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN
12/21/10 2:25 PM EST
72 Comments

President Barack Obama told Congressional Hispanic Caucus members Tuesday that he’ll renew his push for comprehensive immigration reform in 2011 — even though such an effort would face even longer odds in a Congress where Republicans control the House.

Obama made the pledge afterthe defeat last weekend of a more narrowly tailored reform measure, which cleared the Democratic House by a slim margin but failed in the Senate on Saturday.

"It was to reassure us that he wasn't giving up," Rep. Charles Gonzalez (D-Texas), chairman of the caucus, told POLITICO. "What he said was we would still be looking at reforming the immigration laws and it would be comprehensive."

After a 45-minute Oval Office meeting, Gonzalez and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said the president suggested he would address the issue in his State of the Union speech, which aims to set the agenda for the next year.

"My impression was this issue is not going away, and it is necessary for the economic health of the country," Gonzalez said. "He will be touching on it in the State of the Union."

By reiterating his commitment, Obama has decided that the rightward tilt of the next Congress will not deter him from pushing comprehensive reform, even though the chances for success are slim. The incoming House leadership has pledged to go in a much different direction than Democrats, pushing for more border control measures and stronger enforcement.

The meeting included a discussion of what would be legislatively possible, given that Republicans will take control of the House and narrow the Democratic majority in the Senate, participants said.

"He was looking to us for our input for what would happen in the House," Gonzalez said. “We told the president we would be incredibly vigilant at the subcommittee level and through the legislative process.â€

Hispanic politics spells the end of the United States as we know it at some point only because this ethnic group is being galvanized as one growing and huge force with the view of not only maintainig it's culture and language but by making both directly compete against ours and English. One day this will end in tears...

Congressional Hispanic Caucus

Why, when all men are created equal ,do we have members of our representative government involved in groups that are based entirely on race?

All race based groups in the Government should be banned. If they want to meet, they can go to Starbucks. JMO.

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