Who died and left Bill O’Reilly of Fox News in charge? Who told him it was his job to determine who “deserves” to be here in the United States?
After President Obama made his Executive action known to the American people Thursday night, Bill O’Reilly invited an undocumented journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas, on his Fox show to talk about the the president’s immigration decision.
O’Reilly ran through Vargas’s background as an immigrant who came to the United States from the Philippines at age 12 and then worked on a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post team before publicly revealing his undocumented status.
“Surely you understand how millions of Americans say ‘You know what, bad behavior is being rewarded’ … but there are a lot of people who aren’t of your circumstance, who came here in devious ways, who did things they shouldn’t have done, who didn’t contribute to our society,” O’Reilly said. “Yet they’re in the same blanket. So how do you justify that?”
“I don’t know if people know this, but more than half of undocumented people in this country have been here for 10 years or longer,” Vargas responded. “This has been our home, this is where we go to school, this is where we work, this is where we go to church, this is what we call to be our own communities.”
Vargas lamented that the President’s immigration actions were so politicized before O’Reilly cut in to tell him the real “deal.”
“It is a compassionate move, but it may not be a just move because you and the other people here illegally don’t deserve to be here,” O’Reilly said. “That’s harsh. It’s harsh, okay, but you don’t have an entitlement to be here.”
“Sir, I don’t feel entitled to be here,” Vargas responded. “I don’t ask for any sort of entitlement. All I know is this is where I grew up, this is my home, my family is here.”
While Republicans cry and complain about how “unlawful” the President’s use of Executive Action is, totally ignoring the fact that other presidents have done the exact same thing, former President Bill Clinton is standing by Obama’s side, saying that Mr. Obama is legally allowed to take actions on immigration.
“As far as I can tell, every president in the modern era has issued some executive action on immigration, so I imagine he’ll be on pretty firm legal ground,” Clinton said at a gala for The New Republic magazine’s centennial celebration.
Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush extended amnesty to family members excluded from the last overhaul of U.S. immigration policy in 1986, according to The Associated Press.
Clinton’s remarks come on the eve of Obama’s prime-time address Thursday evening, where he’s expected to shield about 5 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally from deportation.
CNN reports that the President’s prime-time Thursday night address will be followed Friday by an event in Las Vegas, sources tell CNN. While exact details of his announcement aren’t yet public, the basic outline of the plan, as relayed by people familiar with its planning, includes deferring deportation for the parents of U.S. citizens, a move that would affect up to 3.5 million people.
“Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately, Washington has allowed the problem to fester for far too long,” Obama said in a video posted on his Facebook page Wednesday. “And so what I’m going to be laying out is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as President to make the system work better, even as I continue to work with Congress to encourage them to get a bipartisan, comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem.”
Obama invited congressional Democratic leaders to the White House for a dinner Wednesday night to discuss his plans for an executive order, a source told CNN.
No need to mince words here. Starting with immigration reform President Obama must do what is best for the country and the people who live here and not give a fuck what the Republicans, still very much led by the Tea Party, think about it. After being stymied for six long years by a Congress that did not want the first black President to have a legacy of any kind, he must now give it back to them in a big way. There is nothing to lose, no Republican lite Democrats to protect. After Obama was elected twice, by landslide electoral college victories, Republicans refused to admit there was any mandate, even any legitimacy to his victories. Now Obama must tell them loud and clear that he feels the exact same way about their victory.
Immigration reform is a no lose deal for Obama and the Democrats. First of all it’s the right thing to do. It will prevent 5 million people who live and work here, have families here, from being deported. It will also cement the Latino vote in 2016 and the Republicans have little chance of winning without a decent chunk of the Latino vote. As the Republicans complain and talk about impeachment, this will only make Latinos hate them even more than they already do. Any attempt to impeach Obama for something totally lawful and correct, will further destroy Republicans just as the impeachment of Bill Clinton did.
So there really is no downside to Obama acting by executive action on Immigration. As I had mentioned in my last column, the next two years must be executive orders and veto’s and that’s it. There is no negotiating to do with Republicans, not anymore. Been there for six years, done that for six years. You can’t negotiate with neanderthals. They don’t have the brains nor the heart to do what is right for the American people that are not in the top one percent. On the Keystone pipeline Obama must use his veto pen. Obama must show that America will take the lead on global warming. Funny how a party that hasn’t cared one bit about creating jobs, all of a sudden cares about a thousand short term jobs that would lead to about 50 permanent jobs. The over 200,000 jobs that Obama has been creating every month, they won’t talk about of course.
There is nothing more to talk about. Obama must now finish carving his legacy. A legacy that is about taking us out of a recession, ending two wars, finishing Bin Laden, bringing affordable health care to over 10 million people, a stock market that hits record highs daily, gas prices that continue to plummet, cutting the deficit in more than half, and so on and so on and so on.
Republicans will scream and shout, they will have tantrums and curse and threaten. Too damn bad. They have and will continue to misread this past election and overplay their hand. Obama must use this against them and continue to watch the infighting within the Republican party. Let them continue to have to answer impeachment calls from the Tea Party members, let them continue their infighting over this and other issues. Let them fight over shutting down the government. The more resolute he is the more infighting there will be as they try to figure out what to do with this newly defiant President that they are certainly not accustomed to.
I’m cautiously optimistic. Obama has had these opportunities before and has squandered them. However maybe with Immigration reform, the great climate deal with China, and his recent comments about the Keystone pipeline, we are indeed seeing a new Obama. An Obama that has finally realized what the agenda of the Republican party is and has been since January 20, 2009. They couldn’t prevent him from being elected twice, but they still believe they can control his destiny.
They can do so only if he allows it. He is the President. He has the moral high ground and the law on his side. He has the veto pen. He cannot allow Republicans to hurt this country anymore than they already have. He cannot allow them to destroy all the good he has done and take us back to 2008.
He must forge ahead. All they can do is cry about it. He has all the power. They know it. Let’s hope he does as well.
President Obama is determined to get something done on immigration. And despite the threats from Republicans to block all his other policies if he does immigration alone, the president is insisting on doing the right thing.
Seated with 12 top members of the House and Senate in the Old Family Dining Room, Obama shot back that he intended to proceed, saying that he had already waited almost two years for congressional action on immigration. He added that his decision should not upend chances for cooperation on unrelated matters, according to aides familiar with the exchange.
The new focus on Obama’s plans to revamp the immigration system by executive fiat came as the president is reportedly reviewing proposals to allow as many as 5 million illegal immigrants to stay in the United States at least temporarily, according to several people familiar with his plans. He is expected to announce his intentions after returning from a visit to China, Burma and Australia, either this month or in early December, said those familiar with the subject, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not
In one if her regular rambling pieces produced by her “network,” Sarah Palin stole 3 minutes and 23 seconds of my precious time “talking” about an issue that doesn’t even exist – the apparent “open borders” problem that Barack Obama brought with him when he commandeered the White House.
No, seriously. According to Sarah Palin and the rest of her party, America’s borders are wide “open,” like curtains blowing in the winds allowing anyone to just stroll in and out as they pleased. No border patrol agents, no Immigration Customs Enforcement or ICE as we would imagined them called if they ever existed, just a vast opened landmass where anyone can come and steal our jobs.
Said Palin, “we can’t continue to allow unrestricted, illegal immigration through our open borders and uninforced, over stayed visas.”
That statement was said by Palin after she showed a clip of two countries using our “open borders” to gain free, unrestricted access to the United States – Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
Yes, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. These two countries are apparently allowing their people to travel to the United States because our custom agents are all on permanent vacations, and the Border Patrol agents are figments of our imagination, and the Saudis and Pakistanis are free to roam our borders stealing our jobs.
“The Republican Party is essentially dead to our community. They have killed the dreams of thousands of people,” said Greisa Martinez, an organizer with United We Dream, the youth-led immigration advocacy network that organized the event. Explaining that her mother is undocumented, Martinez said, “They have killed the dreams of my mother for not moving forward on immigration reform. They have killed the dreams of millions of people across the nation. And we’re here to say, ‘Enough.'”
Dressed in black and carrying a mock coffin, a coalition of immigration activists paraded through the halls of the Dirksen and Hart Senate buildings on Monday morning as part of a protest of the Republican Party’s stance on immigration.
During the staged funeral procession, demonstrators said that they wouldn’t cry for the Republican Party or mourn its death because its politicians are out of touch on immigration and no longer represent their community.
The procession started at Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) office and meandered through the halls, stopping at the offices of Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas). At each office, the casket was laid outside the office doors while members of the procession, some of whom were undocumented, shared personal stories to suggest that the GOP is out of touch on immigration.
Following his meeting with Texas Governor Rick Perry, President Obama issued a statement saying that there are no real differences between what he an Perry wants in regards to the border security and immigration issues in South Texas. The President stated that the real stumbling block is getting Congress to act on getting things done.
“The problem here is not a major disagreement around the actions that could be helpful in dealing with the problem. The challenge is, is Congress willing to act to get this done,” the president told reporters. “The question is are we more interested in politics or are we more interested in solving the problem.”
The president urged Republicans to put politics aside and act on his request for $3.7 in emergency funding to cope with the influx of unaccompanied minors flooding across the border.
“Congress has the ability to work with all parties involved to directly help this solution,” Obama said. “This supplemental offers them the ability to work immediately to get this done.”
Republican brainchild Louie Gohmert believes he has fugured out who is responsible for the immigration crisis developing in South Texas, where thousands of kids and young adults are illegally crossing the border into the United States.
According to Gohmert, Obama is orchestrating the illegal migration because the immigrants would vote for Democrats in the election.
Speaking to Steve Malzberg of Newsmax, Gohmert showed the true size of his brain.
“In the end, they have said that they want to turn Texas blue, they want to turn America blue. And if you bring in hundreds of thousands or millions of people and give them the ability to vote and tell them — as Quico Canseco said, he had illegals in his district that were told, ‘If you want to keep getting the benefits, you have to vote, and President Obama’s lawyers are not going to allow them to ask for an ID, so go vote or you’re going to lose the benefits you’re getting now.’ That drives people to vote and it will ensure that Republicans don’t ever get elected again.”
This utter nonsense is coming from an elected official in the Republican party. Louis Gohmert and his band of imbeciles are the ones making up the party of Lincoln.
That he, an elected official, would open his mouth and say such hogwash, just shows how far from grace the party has fallen, and given their current makeup, there is no coming back for this bunch.
The question now is, are you going to go down with these numbskulls, or are you going to do your part to progress, to move forward. Is today’s regressive Republican party the future you envisioned?
Then vote like your future depends on it, cause it does.
I guess Boehner and his Republican followers will add this to their lawsuit against the President. They’re not doing anything, so they’re upset that the President is. Today, our fearless leader ventured out on the White House lawn and told the world the hell with Republicans and their proposed lawsuit. If Congress fails to do what the constitution demands, then he will!
The Senate passed their version of immigration reform over a year ago, but House Republicans have failed to address the Senate’s bill or any bill containing the words immigration reform.
“Unfortunately, Republicans in the House of Representatives have repeatedly failed to take action, seemingly preferring the status quo of a broken immigration system over meaningful reform,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
“I urge House Republicans to listen to the will of the American people and bring immigration reform to the House floor for a vote,” Obama said.
He repeated that plea in a private conversation with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican said.
The Senate legislation, unveiled on April 16, 2013, and passed by the full Senate in June, has remained stalled in the Republican-led House, despite a strong vote by the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Although the main stories in the press focus on gridlock and the lack of compromise, that doesn’t mean that things aren’t slowly changing in the United States. As usually happens, change is driven by the people as they react to circumstances created by the politicians, and that in turn leads to more calls for change. Politicians, meanwhile, usually lag behind the grass-roots calls because they are essentially reactive beings loathe to offend or move too fast.
Consider immigration. There is clearly a need to reform out immigration laws, and most of that is related to things other than a path to citizenship. The Republicans have already felt the wrath of Hispanic voters, but because most of the conservatives have safe districts, and because of their irrational fear of giving President Obama any political victory, the party doesn’t full see the urgency for a vote this term.
The latest argument is that Obama is not to be trusted with the law because he’s already made executive changes to the ACA, and the GOP fears that he will make similar changes to anything they negotiate with him. Now, though, they’re being called out by Senator Charles Schumer. His idea is to pass the law, but have it become operative in 2017, after Obama leaves office. After all, the ACA was passed in 2010 and didn’t become fully operational until 2013. Why not immigration? The GOP’s answer, through Rob Portman of Ohio, seems somewhat promising, but overall the Republicans have little interest in taking voters’ minds off the health care rollout, even if millions of Americans now have the security of health insurance.
Make no mistake that immigration reform will get done sooner or later. Sooner, it will be done with Republican input. Later, it will be done solely by Democrats because the growing Hispanic community will see the GOP as an obstacle. The next Republican presidential nominee had better drop the deportation rhetoric if they want to have any chance of being elected.
Meanwhile, the country will move forward with or without the politicians. As it always has.
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