President Barack Obama on the Importance of Voting in North Carolina

Obama on Immigration

House Republicans seek to block Obama Immigration changes

WASHINGTON—House Republicans are set to vote next week on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security that will be coupled with a number of hard-line conservative measures going after President Barack Obama’s central immigration policies. The bill is likely to set up a weeks long fight between Republicans and the president that could risk shutting down DHS at the end of next month.

The $39.7 billion DHS funding package was introduced on Friday, and will be coupled next week with amendments limiting the president’s immigration authorities. One amendment is expected to block Obama’s recently announced executive actions on immigration, which could give work authorization to up to 5 million people who are in the country illegally. Members said the legislation would also halt the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which protects undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children.

Along with those measures, members said the amendments would reinstate the controversial Secure Communities immigration enforcement program, which DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson announced would be ended late last year due to pushback from state and local officials. The package is also expected to do away with most of the “Morton Memos,” guidance from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that instructs agents to focus deportation efforts on immigrants who are perceived as more dangerous or who have recently crossed the border illegally.

Immigration Move : a first step

Immigration Move a "Stopgap Measure"

David Bacon
November 20, 2014
Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)

[President Obama] said today: "The administration's decision to step away, at least partially, from the policy of mass deportations that have hurt millions of people over the last six years is a good step, but it is only a step. It leaves millions more people subject to deportation and vastly increased enforcement.The administration is imposing increasing enforcement and labor programs as a price for deportation relief. The U.S. already spends more money on immigration enforcement than all other federal law enforcement programs combined. Giving Silicon Valley more work visas and tying labor programs to deportation relief is a step towards lower wages, undermining the rights of all workers. At the same time, the administration has announced support for more free trade deals, like the Trans Pacific Partnership, which will lead to more displacement and migration, while eliminating jobs here at home. Instead of a stopgap measure, we must change U.S. immigration law and trade policy to deal with the basic causes of migration, and to guarantee the human, civil and labor rights of migrants and all working people."

[David Bacon is author of several books on immigration, including The Right to Stay Home and Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. He is a labor and immigrant rights activist, and part of the Dignity Campaign.]

Resources

The Dignity Campaign - Real Immigration Reform

United We Dream
United We Dream is the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the nation. Our powerful nonpartisan network is made up of over 100,000 immigrant youth and allies and 55 affiliate organizations in 26 states. We organize and advocate for the dignity and fair treatment of immigrant youth and families, regardless of immigration status.

President Obama's FULL Address To The Nation on Immigration (11-20-14)

Tell President Obama- Take Action on Immigration

President Obama has committed to take action on immigration but there are a lot of people who don't want him to—namely, House Republicans.

These are the same House Republicans who have had more than a year to act on the immigration reform bill that the Senate passed—but did nothing instead.

As Republicans try to stop the president, we need to show him that the American people overwhelmingly support him taking action for millions of families.

Add your name to show your support for President Obama taking executive action for immigrant families.

According to a Nov. 13th New York Times piece, the president's executive action to keep immigrant families together could come as soon as next week. Regardless of the exact timing, we're closer than ever from the biggest immigration victory in decades -- and Republicans are panicking.

They've already begun issuing threats to keep up their bad track record of blocking any immigration reforms while making vague pledges to pass legislation. No more ploys. We are not falling for that false promise again.

Cornel West: President Obama Doesn't Belong on Any Shirt with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X

Cornel West: President Obama Doesn't Belong on Any Shirt with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X

What President Obama Told Latino DC About Immigration

Presidential speech on Immigration to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Oct. 2, 2014

Five Blatant Lies Immigration Hawks Want You to Believe

With November's midterm elections fast approaching, the immigration issue is heating up once again. Politicians often debate immigration with little regard for the facts, and the recent child migrant crisis and the rise of the Islamic State terrorist organization have provided fodder for a new series of wildly inaccurate claims that play on Americans' fears.

Here are five flat-out untrue statements that immigration hawks want you to believe.

by Roque Planas 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/24/immigration-lies_n_5875282.html?ir=Latino+Voices

Obama Delays Decision on Immigration

Policy on refugees has not changed. ( see post below)

WASHINGTON — President Obama will delay taking executive action on immigration until after the midterm elections, bowing to pressure from fellow Democrats who feared that acting now could doom his party’s chances this fall, White House officials said on Saturday. NY Times.

The decision is a reversal of Mr. Obama’s vow to issue broad directives to overhaul the immigration system soon after summer’s end, and sparked swift anger from immigration advocates. The president made the promise on June 30, standing in the Rose Garden, where he angrily denounced Republican obstruction and said he would use the power of his office to protect immigrant families from the threat of deportation.

“Because of the Republicans’ extreme politicization of this issue, the president believes it would be harmful to the policy itself and to the long-term prospects for comprehensive immigration reform to announce administrative action before the elections,” a White House official said. “Because he wants to do this in a way that’s sustainable, the president will take action on immigration before the end of the year.”

Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press.  9/6/2014.

WASHINGTON — Caught between competing political demands over immigration, President Barack Obama will now wait until after the November election to take executive action that could shield millions of immigrants from deportation and ignite a clash over the extent of his presidential authority.

Obama or Republicans- Who is blocking immigration reform ?

SAHIL KAPUR – MAY 5, 2014, 11:25 AM EDT

Barack Obama wants to be the president who signs comprehensive immigration reform into law. But in the absence of congressional action he has signaled he'll act on his own and slow deportations for people living in the country illegally without criminal records.

As the Republican-led House stonewalls legislative action, insisting the president can't be trusted to enforce the law, Obama's pivot to executive action sets a dangerous political trap for the GOP. They'll feel compelled to oppose his steps to make life easier for undocumented immigrants -- they're already begun to do just that. But that will further alienate their party with Hispanics, the country's fastest-growing demographic, for whom immigration reform is a high priority.
Even worse, if Obama acts on his own Republicans won't share in any of the credit. Democrats will reap political gains with the Latinos -- whom GOP strategists insist the party must win over to stay competitive on the presidential stage -- in 2016 and beyond while Republicans take the side of those calling for deporting unauthorized immigrants.
"When Republicans say the President must do more to enforce the law, we hear it as a lame excuse for their own inaction and a call for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants," said Frank Sharry, who runs the pro-reform group America's Voice. "Needless to say, the hole the GOP has dug itself with Latino, Asian American, and immigrant voters gets deeper every time they say it."

Yes We Can. NYTimes Editorial

"Yes He Can, on Immigration" - NYTimes Editorial  

  

By: New York Times Editorial Board

  

If President Obama means what he says about wanting an immigration system that reflects American values, helps the economy and taps the yearnings of millions of Americans-in-waiting, he is going to have to do something about it - soon and on his own. It has been frustrating to watch his yes-we-can promises on immigration reform fade to protestations of impotence and the blaming of others. All Mr. Obama has been saying lately is: No, in fact, we can't, because Republicans and the law won't let me.

  

Mr. Obama is correct when he complains that long-term immigration repairs have been throttled in Congress. Neo-nativist Republicans fixated on mass deportation have blocked a worthy bipartisan bill. But Mr. Obama has compounded this failure by clinging to a coldblooded strategy of ramped-up enforcement on the same people he has promised to help through legislation that he has failed to achieve.

Obama visits activists fasting for immigration reform

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama stopped by the National Mall on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to speak with immigration reform activists who are fasting as part of an effort to push Congress to act on a path to citizenship for millions of the nation's undocumented immigrants.
"The President and the First Lady are visiting individuals taking part in Fast For Families on the National Mall and offer their support for those who are fasting on behalf of immigration reform," a White House official said, according to a pool report.

Activists have been fasting on the National Mall since Nov. 12 and have attracted several White House and Congressional leaders who have visited to show solidarity. The Obamas spoke with 18 day fasters and two activists who have been fasting for 18 days: Eliseo Medina (left) and Dae Joong Yoon (right), and thanked them for their "sacrifice and dedication."

Fast for Immigration Reform - Update

Pressure and Passivity on Immigration

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD.  NYTimes. November 27, 2013.

President Obama made the case for immigration reform again on Monday, in a speech in San Francisco that seemed mostly directed to Republicans in Congress, who aren’t listening. (See post below)

Noting the Republican resistance to passing a single comprehensive bill, he struck an oddly lighthearted note. “It’s Thanksgiving,” he said. “We can carve that bird into multiple pieces — a drumstick here, breast meat there.” This drew chuckles. By suggesting that large-scale immigration overhaul can be done incrementally, he was retreating from an argument that has guided reform advocates for a decade: fixing the broken system requires three things at once — tighter enforcement, an improved flow of new immigrants and legalization for the 11 million living here outside the law.

Barack Obama on Immigration Reform - November 25, 2013

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everybody!  (Applause.)  Well, hello, San Francisco!    It is great to be back in California.  It is great to be with all of you.  I love San Francisco.      

And it’s fitting that we’re here in Chinatown, just a few miles away from Angel Island.  In the early 1900s, about 300,000 people -- maybe some of your ancestors -- passed through on their way to a new life in America.  And for many, it represented the end of a long and arduous journey -- they’d finally arrived in a place where they believed anything was possible.

And for some, it also represented the beginning of a new struggle against prejudice in a country that didn’t always treat its immigrants fairly or afford them the same rights as everybody else.  Obviously, Asians faced this, but so did the Irish; so did Italians; so did Jews; and many groups still do today.

Obama, Tear Down this Wall!

Cornel West on liberals, Trayvon Martin, privilege

http://youtu.be/f9bPaIWBrvo
Dr. Cornel West, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud joins Thom Hartmann. For tonight's Conversation with Great Minds Thom is joined by Dr. Cornel West. A self-described "champion of justice through the traditions of the black church" - Dr. West is one of America's most important public intellectuals and a fierce advocate for democracy. He currently serves as the Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at the Union Theological Seminary and is the author of 20 books - including the classics "Race Matters" and "Democracy Matters."
July, 2013. 

Cornel West: Obama's Response to Trayvon Martin Case Belies Failure to C...

Obama in Mexico - Stop the deportations

For some conservatives, Its all about Race

For Conservatives, It's All About Race

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/maxwell-for-conservatives-its-all-about-race/2116264

Author:    Bill Maxwell

Date of Source: 

Friday, April 19, 2013

Tampa Bay Times

When I was a journalism professor in 2005 at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, a white student from the University of Alabama came to my campus and handed me a bullet-ridden sheet of standard copy paper.

It was a target that had been used at a local shooting range.
The image on the target was an enlargement of my photograph published in the Tuscaloosa News with my weekly column. Most of my forehead was shot out, and my eyes and nose were gone. The student said many whites in Tuscaloosa hated me and advised me to be "extra careful."
I was reminded of that experience after reading about Sgt. Ron King, the white firearms instructor recently fired from the Port Canaveral Police Department. He allegedly offered fellow officers shooting targets with a silhouette resembling Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black 17-year-old shot and killed last year in nearby Sanford by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.