Thread: Rep. Gutierrez: Obama 'Eerily Silent' on Immigration

Rep. Gutierrez: Obama 'Eerily Silent' on Immigration
By Ben Pershing

A key member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus delivered a mixed review of the group's meeting with President Obama today, saying the session "went well" but did not result in any firm commitment by the administration to address immigration reform soon.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D), who worked with Obama in the Illinois congressional delegation, said this afternoon that he and his fellow CHC members "firmly advocated for [Obama] to keep his promise to bring about comprehensive immigration reform." He added that, per the group's preference, immigration was the only subject discussed during the hour-long meeting, and that some members expressed their concerns about the administration's policies on immigration raids and deportations.

The White House has not been particularly vocal on the subject of immigration since Obama took office. After the collapse of the Bush administration's efforts to push through comprehensive reform, the issue remains politically sensitive and has not often appeared on lists of Obama's priorities for his first year in office.

"The president has been silent on this issue, eerily silent to many of us," Gutierrez said, adding that he believes "the administration is still struggling with what to do about comprehensive immigration reform."

Obama did announce during the meeting that he planned to visit Mexico next month, which did not seem to impress Gutierrez much. The Illinois lawmaker was more encouraged, he said, by the president's pledge to "do something public in the coming weeks to reiterate his commitment" to immigration reform.

But Obama did not provide the lawmakers with specifics, and Gutierrez said that while the session was positive, "I think we have to be very careful not to oversell what was accomplished."

The White House, which called the meeting "robust and strategic" in its public statement on today's meeting, has not yet responded to a request for further comment.

By Ben Pershing | March 18, 2009; 4:48 PM ET



http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capito ... l-briefing

..."eerily silent" mmm.... I hope that means that Barack Hussein Obama is realizing that he will have a hard time trying to make 12 million unemployed Americans and THEIR families and children jump on board the "amnesty and employment stimulus package" for illegal aliens (aka Comprehensive Immigration Reform). It could backfire on him just as the AIG bonuses did although they feigned outrage. Remember, Barack Hussein Obama and Chris Dodd were the two Senators who received the largest political contributions from AIG....and Dodd wrote the bonus provision into the bill that set forth the taxpayer funded bail-out for AIG.

Is OBAMA worried that his long history of public support for illegal aliens and the radical, illegal alien supporting union the SEIU....would not play out so well to the American public especially those Americans who have to compete with illegals for jobs, or lost jobs to companies that hire illegals. or who have been victimized by criminal illegal aliens?

Obama and his key people must be impeached so that we can continue to be a Democracy.

immigration and more specifically illegal immigration is clearly a very high-voltage third rail. I cannot wait when this erupts if and when those loons make a clear first move to shove this down our throats.

UMMMM yesterday they announced Obama promised to do something by May...which is it Luis??You just can not trust these liars!!

I read somewhere, I believe it was on Numbers, that the phones at the Capitol are ringing off the hook about this immigration enforcement thing with Napolitano. I think they are already feeling the wrath of the American people and are probably trying to figure out how to quiet the masses beore they tackle amnesty.

FOX news has been reporting it all day, I hope people are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore....the whinners getting their way again, I guess the squeaky wheel gets the oil....well I hope our side is squeaking loudly!!

I hope people are calling the WH and more importantly their Reps and Senators! I spent several hours on this yesterday & today when this broke. If we don't make an uproar, the pro-amnesty special interests will think we don't care!

PLEASE CALL.

I have been working on it < illinois, and Idaho think I am going crazy