Thread: Luis Gutierrez preaches lower expectations for immigration r

Chicago's Luis Gutierrez preaches lower expectations for immigration reform
Published: Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 8:00 AM Updated: Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 8:50 AM


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The man widely seen as the leader of the nation's immigration reform movement told a Cleveland audience Monday that a worthy but flagging crusade may need to lower its expectations.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Chicago, said the quest to change the nation's immigration system -- and to offer illegal immigrants a path to citizenship -- needed more fervor and, perhaps, less lofty goals.

If comprehensive immigration reform cannot be achieved with a Democratic congress and a pro-immigrant president, he said, it may be the impossible dream.

"Maybe it's time to change the language, to change the strategy, to change what it is we're shooting for," Gutierrez told a largely Hispanic audience gathered at a landmark African-American church on Cleveland's East Side. "Either we achieve comprehensive immigration reform, or we stop the destructive nature of our immigration system."

Gutierrez, the son of Puerto Ricans, came to Mount Sinai Church at the request of U.S. Rep. Martha Fudge, one of the original co-sponsors of his immigration reform legislation.

Gutierrez's bill, introduced in the House of Representatives in December 2009, addresses many of the facets of the immigration issue. It would toughen border security, streamline the visa process to reduce backlogs and, most controversially, offer "earned citizenship" to illegal immigrants.

Gutierrez blamed a "Republican blockade" for the bill stalling.

He added that the prospects for passage would not seem any brighter after November, when a lame duck Congress returns to Washington.


"We're going to go back at it," he told Latino civic leaders gathered in the church basement before the rally. But if sweeping immigration reform proves fruitless, Gutierrez said, the Latino community needs to target more achievable goals--and with a new insistence.

He said he would like to push for passage of the so-called Dream Act, which would allow illegal immigrant children to earn citizenship by graduating from college or serving in the U.S. military.

Above all, he said, he wants to stop the deportations that are separating families and unnerving Latinos from coast to coast. Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced it has deported a record 392,000 people this year.

"I have to think your community is just like mine," Gutierrez told the civic leaders. "Children are seeing their friends disappear. Parents are afraid of being separated from their children."

President Obama could, with the stroke of a pen, stop deportations by ordering reprieves until Congress acts on a reform bill, he said. But that is unlikely until the movement gains more power.

Gutierrez acknowledged earlier causes that achieved voting rights for women and civil rights for African Americans, but only after much pain and shared sacrifice.

Picking up on that theme, Fudge told the Latino civic leaders that they had not yet pricked the conscience of America. "You have to find a way to bring yourselves together in a way that people pay attention," she said.

That message also resounded upstairs, in a sanctuary that hosted a multi-cultural rally.

"I believe we can write a new page of history, if we join together on immigration, and challenge this country to live up to its creed," said Rev. C. Jay Matthews, the pastor of Mt. Sinai Ministries and the leader of a major black ministers group, United Pastors in Mission.

After sharing the story of his own migrant experience -- moving from Chicago to Puerto Rico as a teenager -- and with the audience hanging on his every word, Gutierrez called for perseverance and unity. He said success will require more strident activism.

The civil rights movement accelerated "when the best and most comfortable of African-Americans were willing to risk their comfort," he declared.

"Our enemies want us to be tired. Our enemies want us to give up," he said. "We're going to fight for change. Because that is our historic responsibility."


http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/10 ... eform.html

Please God...let him be ousted soon...PLEASE!

No "earned' goodies for illegal aliens, only deportation. They don't have to separate their families, they deport together. End of argument. I agree that immigration (legal only) system must be streamlined and can be handled better.

According to Wikipedia:

While serving as US Representative, Gutierrez helped his daughter Omaira Figueroa get a job as a consumer counselor for the Illinois Commerce Commission in June 2004, after Blagojevich aides included her in the then-secret hiring database under a spreadsheet labeled "Gutierrez, Luis (CONG-D-4th Dist.)"[5]

With a $140,000 loan from her parents, Figueroa bought a new two-bedroom, two-bathroom condominium in Humboldt Park in June 2008 for $155,000 through an affordable housing program in the 26th ward of then-alderman Billy Ocasio. When Figueroa bought her condominium on June 9, 2008, she and her husband were making $93,828 a year -- $55,620 from her state-government job with the Illinois Commerce Commission and $38,208 from her husband's job with the city Aviation Department. Little more than a year later, she sold it for $239,900, $84,900, or 55 percent, more than she'd paid.[6]

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I'm intrigued...can anyone elaborate on the above mentioned "then secret hiring database"?

When he said "Our enemies want us to be tired. Our enemies want us to give up," he said. "We're going to fight for change. Because that is our historic responsibility."
I guess he means the enemy is anyone, even those in the district he represents if they don't subscribe to his thoughts and ideas. As far as the fight for change.....that means, we want the rules changed for our benefit.
And what the hell does "Because it's our historic responsibility" mean?

Luis Gutierrez is sounding a retreat!

W

Gutierrez blamed a "Republican blockade" for the bill stalling.

Pstt. Luis. The Dems have a majority.

President Obama could, with the stroke of a pen, stop deportations by ordering reprieves until Congress acts on a reform bill, he said. But that is unlikely until the movement gains more power.

President Obama has effectively stopped deportations by refusing to enforce our current immigration laws.

The civil rights movement accelerated "when the best and most comfortable of African-Americans were willing to risk their comfort," he declared.

Apparently, Luis didn't notice that African-Americans are just that - AMERICANS.

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

Luis Gutierrez is sounding a retreat!

W

Gutierrez blamed a "Republican blockade" for the bill stalling.

No he is just flapping is mouth like he always does trying to get his
compadres out to vote....telling them this will happen if they don't vote.


Kathyet

Does anyone besides me get really annoyed when the pro-illegal advocates compare the push for amnesty for illegals with the Civil Rights movement for African American citizens? For the life of me I cannot understand why some of these so-called "black leaders" jump on that bandwagon.

On the contrary, it's a slap in the face to those African Americans and all Americans who fought, struggled, and in some cases gave their lives to achieve the equal rights guaranteed under the Constitution that they should have had as American citizens.

You aren't alone noyoucannot. That's the Mexican way....to use anyone elses platform to further their agenda. That's what they do best...compare their situation to another and then try to make that situation theirs in their feeble attempt to convince everyone that their plight is the same as some other. Jumping on someone else's bandwagon.
And yeah...if I were African American, I would be livid that those low lives would dare to compare my ethnic history with theirs.

Luisito Gutierrez is a Clown!!!