VivirLatino

So VL told you yesterday that Obama was going to tackle this immigration thing fairly quickly–and then today comes the message that–well, no he’s not.

While it’s a top priority for the president’s first term, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro says “the president has consistently said that he wants to start the discussion later this year because our immigration system is broken … but the economy comes first.”

The White House insisted that Thursday’s New York Times story reporting that President Obama would start addressing immigration “isn’t news.” Administration officials say the president previously told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce that he’s always planned to start discussions on immigration reform this year.

“There are a lot of things on his plate and a lot of pressing issues relating to the economy. I don’t think he expects that it will be done this year,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday.

On the one hand, this is really irritating. I’m sick and tired of immigration reform always being cast aside, especially when horrible things like ICE raids keep happening and community members continue to live in fear.

But at the same time, in many ways, I also don’t understand the huge rush to get things done that many immigration rights groups engage in. It often feels to me like they are pushing to get things “done” so quickly that they are actually willing to concede far more than what anybody is asking for in the name of “quick.” For example, during the last immigration rounds, I know many immigration rights groups were really pushing for the proposed legislation, even though the legislation came with heavy fines nobody that I know of could actually afford to pay.

So it may actually be a mixed blessing that this legislation is going to take a while to come to fruition. It gives on the ground workers more time to mobilize and pull people/organizations together. I just hope that organizations look at this delay in the same way and take it as an opportunity to get behind the scenes work done!