Being the good American citizen I am, I checked out the accompanying link to see just how I can join in on the conversation. It seems I can do three things:
1) Take action by hosting a roundtable on immigration. They even provide me with a “tool kit” to do so.
2) I can “advise the advisor.” A way to “help senior staff at the White House stay connected to the American people.”
3) I can read the Blueprint for Immigration Reform, which I take to be the document President Obama largely based yesterday’s big immigration speech on.
The website goes on to tell me what the “President’s Vision for Reform” is, which I again take to be a short summary of the speech he gave yesterday. The White House also bullet-points the “progress “ made in improving the immigration system within the boundaries of existing laws. These include spending more money to secure the border, making enforcement “smarter and more effective,” and working to improve our legal immigration system.
So what’s missing from this glance – the website the White House is directing us to if we are interesting in learning more about the administration’s stand on immigration reform? What is missing is any word about what the President is going to do. Directly do. No timelines. No hard initiatives. No mention by direct name of who he will be directly working with in order to advance his own beliefs.
And sadly, no direct mention of the Dream Act, which you might remember would provide legal status and a path to citizenship to young people who were brought to the United States illegally as children and receive a college education or want to enter the military. While President Obama did indeed (briefly) mention his support of the Dream Act during his speech yesterday, it does not appear in his vision statement today, on the newly enhanced website. All in the context of working within the boundaries of existing laws – which I take as code for I-am-not-going-to-use-my-bully-pulpit-as-President-to-rock-the-boat. Not going to advice the Justice Department to push the envelope.
The time for any more roundtables on this issue is long gone. I am tired of talking about this with my friends. And frankly I am quite sure senior staff at the White House have heard from plenty of people like me who think the President has to show real leadership on this issue, instead of just talking about building bi-partisan consensus. And throwing hands up in the air in argument that the administration lacks legal authority in various realms related to immigration due to boundaries of existing laws.
Oh, and the part about fixing the immigration system for the 21st century economy? While of course, this is overwhelming about the economy – poor people who need to make a living at any cost and greedy folks who want to get richer off the backs of those they can exploit – this is also about individual people. Families living in fear of being torn apart. Young adults who have so much to give to the only country they have ever known. All of us who cherish living in a democracy.
And one more thing. From the New York Times:
On the heels of President Obama’s renewed call to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws in Texas on Tuesday, Senate Democrats are reintroducing a bill that would give legal status to some illegal immigrants who came into the United States as children.This will undoubtedly increase the pressure on President Obama to use his executive power to stop deportations of youths eligible for the DREAM Act. Will the President listen?
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, along with Senators Dick Durbin of Illinois and Robert Menendez of New Jersey, said the Senate will revive the Dream Act, one of the few signature pieces of Democratic legislation that failed during the lame-duck session of the last Congress, when Democrats controlled both chambers.
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