That’s what Obama said in a press conference earlier today when pressed as to how he was going to push for comprehensive immigration reform with a GOP led Congress if he couldn’t do it when the Dems were in power.
Obama clearly has down the talking points behind the DREAM Act but he also has the border security first language that allows for the justification of deportations and detentions.
See the video below:
Sorry, but I don’t believe him. The Dream Act isn’t even CIR, and he had two years to get it done. And now I’m supposed to believe that he coudn’t even hustle up five Democratc votes to overcome a filibuster that lost by five votes? Uh huh.
Now he’s going to bring it up again and ask the Republicans to pass it. That will create some nice political theater. Democrats bringing up the Dream Act, Republicans spewing their racist vemom, which is supposed to scare the beejesus out of Hispanics and get us to work 24/7 to reelect Obama.
Meanwhile, nothing gets accomplished.
Biggest new problem we have in supporting comprehensive immigration reform is that now all around the nation, ICE raids that displace undocumented people are producing jobs that (thanks to high unemployment) are rapidly being filled by others–all this is getting a lot of publicity. Given high unemployment we are having trouble persuading people that they don’t need to worry about the undocumented people because no one wants these jobs. One example is here:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2009-09-13-plants_N.htm
Shelly
Ehhh except that is not always the clear pattern. I know that looking for example at agriculture, this is not the story. Raids and fears are forcing farmers to move/outsource their operations outside the U.S.
The huge raid in Iowa also did not follow this pattern. So I question who is promoting this perception and why?
Maegan thanks for your reply! Do you have some links to news stories (or even blog postings) that document cases where the outcome was different? Especially useful would be cases where after the raids, the employers advertised for new employees and couldn’t get them. If that is a common outcome, it would be nice to have hard evidence for it that we could show people who cite examples like the one I mentioned.
Thanks!
Shelly
I would have to search through the archives here but of the top of my head, if you look at the recent hearings on Agjobs, which we livetweeted, there was a tomato farmer who testified on the issue. I will link to more as soon as I find things.