Thread: Obama says ‘fear and resentment’ behind opposition to re

Obama in Texas: Immigration Reform is 'Economic Imperative'

Obama says ‘fear and resentment’ behind opposition to reform
Jim Forsyth




President Obama issued a call for immigration reform during a speech in El Paso this afternoon, blaming opposition to legal status for illegal immigrants on 'fear and resentment,' 1200 WOAI news reports.

"Because undocumented immigrants live in the shadows, they are vulnerable to unscrupulous businesses that skirt taxes, pay workers less than the minimum wage, or cut corners with health and safety," the President said. "This puts companies who follow those rules, and Americans who rightly demand the minimum wage or overtime or just a safe place to work, at an unfair disadvantage."

The President cited the examples of several immigrants, pointing out that Google, Intel, Yahoo, and eBay were all founded by immigrants.

"We don't want the next Intel of Google to be created in China or India, we want those companies and jobs to take root in America."

The President 'demanded that Washington finally meet its responsibility to solve the immigration problem.'

"All of us deserve our freedom and our pursuit of happiness," Obama said. "In embracing America, you can become America."

The President said he has done much to increase border security, and said people who 'want border security first' will never be satisfied.

"Next they will want a moat, and alligators in the moat," the President said.

He said the best way to secure the borders is to 'fix the system as a whole, so fewer people have incentive to enter illegally in search of work in the first place.'

"There is a consensus around fixing what's broken," the President said. "Now we need Congress to catch up to a train that's leaving the station. Now we need to come together around reform that reflects our values as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrations, that demands that everyone take responsibility."

The President said there are now 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. He said they have to 'admit they broke the rules.'

His proposal calls for the undocumented to pay their taxes, pay a fine, and learn English. Then they have to 'undergo background checks and a lengthy process before they can get in line for legalization.'

Obama also called for a revival of the DREAM Act, a proposal which failed to win approval by the Democratic Congress last fall, which would allow the children of illegals who were under 15 when their parents brought them here, if they join the military or successfully complete two years of college.

U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tx), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which would have to consider any immigration legislation, says Obama's proposals amount to 'amnesty' and will not be considered by his committee.

Read more: http://www.q1019.com/cc-common/mainhead ... z1Lyxo3YRl

That's nothing listen to this La Razan Skank! Fell free to let them know!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/advise

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

"Sorry but facebook and twitter isn't going to put Americans back to work you vote buying POS!"

Obama Turns Victory Lap Toward Texas, Immigration Reform

Published May 10, 2011

President Obama boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Tuesday, May 10, 2011, as he travels to the U.S.-Mexico border at El Paso, Texas, to speak about immigration reform, Tuesday, May 10, 2011. (AP)

WASHINGTON -- Eighteen months ahead of the 2012 election, President Obama is took his Usama bin Laden victory tour to the U.S.-Mexico border, where he tried to place the focus on immigration reform -- and at the same time put some distance between himself and an issue that even the death of the world's most wanted man can't obscure: the growing U.S. deficit.

A bipartisan group of legislators was returning for budget talks Tuesday with Vice President Biden to negotiate the terms for increasing the nation's ability to borrow. House Speaker John Boehner is demanding trillions of dollars in spending cuts as a condition for Republican support while House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer expressed concern that the debt limit not turn into a political hot potato in the 2012 election.

Meanwhile, Democrats are demanding an end to tax subsidies for large oil companies as the party mounts its assault on Rep. Paul Ryan over plans to revamp Medicare in part by adding a means-testing formula.

At the same time, lawmakers are moving forward with balanced budget amendment proposals, including a Republican plan to reach balance in 10 years without raising taxes and offering "a modest surplus by 2021."

Even the Gulf of Mexico workforce and funding emergency management of natural disasters in Mississippi, Alabama and elsewhere have taken priority in Congress, which is already slow-walking the path to fiscal sanity.

So it's no wonder calls to revive legislation to remake the nation's immigration laws will likely land with a thud as Obama tries to cast the GOP as the obstacle standing in the way of reforms that Congress is unlikely to consider at any time before the 2012 election.

The president's speech in El Paso, Texas, on Tuesday, and his visit to a border crossing there, are the latest high-profile immigration events by the president, who recently hosted meetings at the White House with Latino lawmakers, movie stars and others. He is attending an Hispanic prayer breakfast later in the week.

With Hispanics making up the largest growing segment of voters -- 21.3 million eligible voters in 2010 totaling 6.9 percent of all registered voters, according to the Pew Hispanic Center -- a push to help legitimize 11 million illegal immigrants could be a lucrative path to re-election.

On the face of it, the president's trip has led to criticism that the effort is little more than politics in pursuit of the ever-growing Hispanic electorate ahead of the 2012 election. White House officials dispute that. They acknowledge the difficulties in getting a bill but say it's likelier to happen if the president creates public support for immigration legislation, leading to pressure on Republican lawmakers.

"We already know from the first two years, the last Congress, that there was political opposition to comprehensive immigration reform, including from some places where there used to be political support," said presidential spokesman Jay Carney. "We are endeavoring to change that dynamic by rallying public support, by raising public awareness about the need for comprehensive immigration reform."

At the same time, the strategy allows Obama to argue that Republicans are standing in the way of an immigration bill -- shifting responsibility away from himself at a time when many Latino activists say he never made good on his campaign promise of prioritizing immigration legislation early on.

Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles and a former aide to President George W. Bush, said the president's trip makes for "nice theatrics."

Aguilar said a national consensus does support dealing with immigration, but the president is more focused on "the numbers." The president's approval ratings among Hispanics has plummeted since he took office, Aguilar said, because of unfulfilled campaign promises, including a lack of job creation and an unemployment rate that is higher than the national average.

Obama's spotty immigration record in the eyes of Latino voters makes it all the more politically imperative for him to shore up their support with his re-election campaign approaching.

The president has picked hostile political territory to make his pitch, visiting a state he lost by more than 10 percentage points in 2008. But the trip does have one overtly political upside: Obama plans a side trip to the relatively liberal bastion of Austin to raise money for the Democratic National Committee at two fundraisers Tuesday night.

"It seems President Obama has once again put on his campaigner-in-chief hat. The president's push to legalize millions of illegal immigrants is purely political," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. "And even though administration officials like to pretend the border is secure, the reality is that it isn't."

But Obama is pitching his immigration argument to the larger public, refining it in a way that goes to Americans' pocketbook concerns. White House officials say Obama will emphasize the economic value of reforming immigration laws, noting that immigrants account for a substantial share of business start-ups and patent applications, among other things -- activities that create jobs for everyone.

It's a different approach than talking about immigration as a security issue or a moral one, and also provides a counter to the Republican argument that illegal immigrants drain U.S. resources.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican battling the administration over state rules to enforce federal immigration law, suggested the president's visit will not shore up his flagging image as weak on border security.

"He's going to be talking about comprehensive immigration. Well, that's not going to sell in Arizona. I don't think it's going to sell in America. I believe he's doing it for political reasons. And I think that no one wants to talk about any of these other issues until we get our borders secured, period," she told Fox News Monday night

The president argued, however, that his administration has made great strides on border security. Administration officials boast of increasing the number of agents on the border, seizing more contraband and nearing completion of a border fence, and say they plan to extend the deployment of National Guard troops Obama sent to the border. To Republicans who say that immigration overhaul legislation shouldn't happen until the border is secure, the White House now says it's as secure as it's ever been and the conversation on legislation needs to happen.

Obama pushed Tuesday for immigration legislation and released a blueprint on his approach to reform, but without setting out any timeline. Indeed, getting immigration reform done any time soon is not realistic. Obama wasn't even able to get legislation through Congress last year that would have provided a route to legal status for college students and others who were brought to the country as children. The so-called DREAM Act passed the House, then controlled by Democrats, but was blocked by Senate Republicans.

The Senate is now even more heavily Republican, and Republicans control the House. That means immigration reform can't happen unless they cooperate.

Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said that House Republicans had no plans to take up immigration legislation and argued that if Obama were serious about immigration reform he would have reached out to Boehner on the issue, which Buck said he hasn't.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05 ... z1Lz1wqdwz

His proposal calls for the undocumented to pay their taxes, pay a fine, and learn English. Then they have to 'undergo background checks and a lengthy process before they can get in line for legalization.'

And they need to get in line in their home countries.

Quote...........He said the best way to secure the borders is to 'fix the system as a whole, so fewer people have incentive to enter illegally in search of work in the first place.'

Obozo, listen up. We know why illegals come in droves here. It is that butterlip promise on amnesty you keep on advertising and the bennies you keep handing out to any that step foot on our soil and pump out puppies in litters you moron.

If they don't want the next intel to be from China or India, then we need to be picky about who we let into this country. You can't tell me that the illegals from Mexico and the people coming here from the middle east, that can't read or write their own language, are going to add to our country. My reasons against illegals coming in are not just the illegal factor, It is because we aren't educating our own children and that is being hindered with the many illeterate people coming into this country. No immmigration of any kind for at least 5 years and then see where we are. Then only let people in that will hlp this country grow. If we educated our kids instead of social engineering them, we would see that our kids are more than capable of competing in this world against any other country. The government is destroying the middle class and I don't see why more people aren't standing up and screaming, as if we had no say in what is going on.

Wow so we'll just put the big bandaid right here! Am I wrong in saying that I didn't hear 1 way to make this immigration issue any better other than animisty for them because that's all I got out of it? Who cares that the guys who invented these web pages were from different countries bet they wernt here illegal tho. This guy needs to be impeached a.s.a.p.

Obozo does it again. Insert his head into....
Disrespectful, ignorant, pandering to those that break the law.
The new America??? We will have our say now...........ELbama!!

Elbama? Best Spanish word ever!