Obama Says Politics Getting in the Way of Immigration Reform

President Obama and congressional Republicans are warring over immigration reform, with major news outlets using not-so-subtle rhetoric of their own to describe Arizona’s new immigration reform law.
In a war of words, President Obama and congressional Republican traded barbs over immigration reform, with the president saying that Republicans are bowing to "pressures of partisanship and election-year politics." GOP leaders, in turn, noted that before the president secures the border, all discussions of immigration reform are premature. Obama specifically called out 11 GOP senators, though he didn’t mention them by name, and noted that they had backed earlier attempts by the previous administration to fix immigration, but were balking now. He also dismissed concerns that border security should be achieved before meaningful gains can be made.

Noted Obama, "Reform that brings accountability to our immigration system cannot pass without Republican votes. That is the political and mathematical reality." For their part, Republicans noted, via Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, that they would support a move forward if Obama "would take amnesty off the table and make a real commitment to border and interior security." And while many advocates for immigrants have praised the president for his stance, others have categorized it as a "sheer political move" on Obama’s part.

Noted Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, "President Obama is operating under the false assumption that Latinos are natural-born Democrats who will rally behind his policies in lockstep. Latinos must not let themselves be deceived by the soaring rhetoric that has replaced meaningful action on immigration." And while Obama has called new Arizona immigration reform "misguided," lawmakers in that state have noted they are both offended by the president’s attitude and merely sought to do something as the federal government continues to do nothing to address that state’s immigration problems. The rhetoric has become so extreme that an Associated Press article appearing yesterday referred to Arizona’s new law as an "anti-immigrant" rather than an "immigration" law. Someone, it appears, is indeed behind the president’s policies in lockstep…it’s just not Latinos.

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