Obama Sets Up Devilish Trap For The GOP On Immigration Reform

[Jesus Malverde]

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."]


Read More: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/obama-trap-gop-immigration

[okaawhatever]

1. Excellent. Congress needs to get off their butts and pass immigration reform and do so in a way it

isn't a gift for big business. Keep H-1B Visas low enough to protect the wages of tech workers.

[pampango]

4. Cruz and House tea partiers just had a meeting to make sure immigration reform does not pass.

Ted Cruz, Tea Party Republicans Hold ‘Secret’ Meeting On Immigration, GOP Leadership

Roll Call reports that two groups of about ten conservative House Republicans have held meetings in recent days following comments by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in which Boehner mocked his colleagues for their unwillingness to tackle immigration reform this year. The speaker, who GOP members say is known for his rough humor with peers, has said he was only kidding, though he also admitted he may have gone “a little too far”. But the some of the chamber's most conservative Republicans still aren't amused.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has often proved a thorn in the side of GOP leadership for his fierce opposition to bipartisan deals on a variety of issues, convened the first meeting on Tuesday night with about 10 members of the House, the site reported. Lawmakers were reluctant to give details on what had transpired, but one attendee, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, said immigration had been high on the agenda. Roll Call reported a day later that Brooks also attended a second meeting featuring another, separate group of 10 or so lawmakers. He told the site afterward that if House leaders decided to introduce an “amnesty” bill, he and other House members would “have to go to extraordinary measures” to oppose it.

Democrats and immigrant advocates have seized on Boehner’s mockery as evidence that the true obstacle to reform isn’t President Obama – whom House GOP members say they don’t trust to enforce border-surveillance laws. According to the Washington Post, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Thursday morning at a press briefing that she believed Boehner when he says he wants to pass a comprehensive immigration reform, but that his efforts were stymied by lack of commitment to the issue by his party’s rank-and-file. "When he put forth the principles, he ran it up the flagpole, we saluted; his caucus chopped down the flagpole."

http://www.latintimes.com/immigration-reform-2014-ted-cruz-tea-party-republicans-hold-secret-meeting-immigration-gop-170353

[okaawhatever]

5. B@stards. Thanks for the article. It still amazes me the GOP can get away with calling

the Senate passed immigration bill "amnesty" if nothing else there was a $2,000 fine. Get me a break.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. Kick

[Coventina]

3. Um, no. Obama didn't trap anybody. The GOP has a sick fascination with hanging itself with its own

rope and shooting itself in its own foot.

They could change the narrative any time they want if they were to actually DO something.