President Barack Obama, accompanied by Vice President Joe Biden, pauses while making an announcement about immigration reform in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington
President Barack Obama says that the surge of immigrant children entering the U.S. illegally changed the politics surrounding the issue of immigration and led him to put off a pledge to use executive action that could have shielded millions of people from deportation.
Immigration reform advocates criticized Obama after White House officials said that the president would not act at summer’s end as he promised in June but would take up the matter after the midterm elections in November. In an interview taped for NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Saturday, Obama rejected the charge that the delay was meant to protect Democratic candidates worried that his actions would hurt their prospects in tough Senate races.
By Obama’s own calculations, politics did play a role in his decision. In his remarks to NBC, which were to be aired yesterday, he said a partisan fight in July over how to address an influx of unaccompanied minors at the border had created the impression that there was an immigration crisis and thus a volatile climate for taking the measures he had promised to take.
“The truth of the matter is — is that the politics did shift midsummer because of that problem,” he said. “I want to spend some time, even as we’re getting all our ducks in a row for the executive action, I also want to make sure that the public understands why we’re doing this, why it’s the right thing for the American people, why it’s the right thing for the American economy.”
Reflecting the passion behind the threat of deportations, immigration advocacy groups that have criticized Republicans for not passing an immigration overhaul instantly turned their anger on Obama.
Cristina Jimenez, managing director of United We Dream, said the decision was “another slap to the face of the Latino and immigrant community.”
“We are bitterly disappointed in the president and we are bitterly disappointed in the Senate Democrats,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice. “We advocates didn’t make the reform promise; we just made the mistake of believing it. The president and Senate Democrats have chosen politics over people, the status quo over solving real problems.” Jim Kuhnhenn, Washington , AP
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