Immigration and "The Vision Thing"

A very disturbing story, picked up yesterday over at Daily Kos.

From Bloomberg News:

The White House is urging lawmakers to back away from a campaign led by Hispanic Democrats to block deportations involving U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, a move that risks antagonizing Latino voters crucial to President Barack Obama’s re-election.

Several members of Congress who were scheduled to attend a March 31 news conference on the issue said administration officials contacted them to voice concern about their participation. Until U.S. immigration law is overhauled, the lawmakers say, Obama should use his executive power to protect families facing deportation or separation because at least one parent is an illegal immigrant.

“The staffers that are attached to us, the liaisons, they transmitted some concern,” said Representative Mike Honda of California, a former chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, referring to the White House legislative affairs office. “They would have loved us not to have gone to the press conference.”

This administration seems to be seriously lacking the “vision thing” with respect to immigration reform, and trying to mitigate the continuing damage coming from the blockage of the Dream Act in the Senate – legislation that would have provided permanent residency to college graduates and military veterans who arrived in the U.S. as children illegally.

There has got to be more to leadership on this issue than doing nothing but talking about trying to build bi-partisan consensus, and throwing hands up in the air in argument that the administration lacks legal authority in this realm.