Obama gathered a bunch of people together yesterday to talk about immigration. Among the invitees was the person who oversaw the deportation of more immigrants over a two-year span than at any other time in the history of the United States, the richest man in New York, an aging movie star, the police, the COO of Facebook ("Like"), and Al Sharpton.
You know who Obama didn’t invite: an experienced immigration lawyer, a seasoned immigration judge, or members of Congress who ultimately vote on immigration reform legislation. The conspicuous absence of any individual who has in-the-trenches experience with the implementation of the immigration law from an immigrant’s perspective, or the lawmakers who can actually do something to fix the problem is very telling.
What it reveals is that this President is more interested in creating a photo-op to garner votes for his reelection than figuring out a way to craft bi-partisan legislation that will infuse some equity into our beyond broken immigration laws. Or better yet, putting an end to his own administration’s draconian deportation quotas.
This President has been giving lip-service to immigration reform for over two years now. His do nothing and blame the Republicans strategy isn’t fooling anyone. He can’t during the span of one week announce that he isn’t targeting DREAMers for deportation while serving the founder of DREAMActivist.org with her deportation papers. His administration is either lying, or is incompetent. Not good enough.
Obama better wake up and realize that he has less than two years to do something about it or voters will be staying home. The buzz I’m hearing from immigration reform activists is that they feel that this President has taken advantage of their trust, and that empty promises, outright lies, and record deportations will not be rewarded. Congressman Gutierrez (D-Ill), one of the President’s most ardent supporters, has just questioned his own ability to the support the President’s reelection bid directly on account of the President’s immigration policies. Very telling indeed.
Parenthetically, can someone please explain to me what Al Sharpton is doing at an immigration reform meeting.
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