If one reads his books, President Barack Obama expresses an understanding of how much immigrants, particularly Latinos, enhance the culture of this country.
If one paid attention to the campaign activity, you heard Obama talk of the need to reform the nation’s immigration laws in ways not hostile to the newcomers.
AND LISTENING TO (or reading the transcript of) Obama’s Inaugural address, one picks up on a tone that is hostile to the xenophobes of this country.
But none of that has eased the concerns of some Latino activists, and those of non-Anglo people in general, that Obama is going to allow the economic troubles facing this country to be his excuse for doing nothing to help revamp the immigration laws in any meaningful way.
There are those activists who literally found his choice of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff as evidence he would do little, since Emanuel in his political past has always preferred to avoid dealing with immigration – arguing that immigrants benefit from Democrats because they squash the harmful measures touted by many conservative Republicans.
They also note the fact that Obama, as a U.S. senator from Illinois, sided with the political dream of conservatives to erect a physical barrier along several hundred miles of the U.S./Mexico border. His vote was defended as being a political maneuver to prevent those same conservatives from denouncing him publicly on the issue during future campaigns.
WITH THAT AS the situation as Obama enters his second week as U.S. president, there is at least one activist group determined to put pressure on him to ensure that he acts – and the sooner, the better.
Calling themselves “Respect/Respeto,” the group is affiliated with the Phoenix-based Golden Door Foundation has a bilingual website (English y Español) that has a running clock of how deep we are into the Obama Administration without an immigration reform proposal being proposed.
While it is not realistic to expect an immigration reform proposal to be introduced only eight days into Obama’s first term in office (which is where the clock was on Wednesday), the group says it seriously wants something to be offered up within the first 100 days – that mythical time period by which all presidencies allegedly set the tone for their entire time in office.
The group’s executive director, Lydia Guzman, said she thinks it is totally appropriate for Latinos to expect some respect from Obama, since the Latino voter bloc provided solid support for Obama during his campaign against Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
“THE HISPANIC VOTE was significant to President Obama’s victory,” Guzman said, in a prepared statement. “Immigration reform needs to be a priority in Obama’s first 100 days.”
The group contends that the stimulus package desired by Obama to give the economy a jolt is just as good a place as any to do something about immigration, since many of the newcomers to this country come here because of a desire to work.
Jobs and immigration are two issues that are intertwined.
The group also believes that the increases in the number of Democrats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate give Obama enough supporters (in theory) to support immigration reform.
THEY EVEN SEEM to have some belief that McCain will revert back to his old way of thinking about immigration and work to get some Republican support for immigration reform that does not focus solely on increasing the number of deportations from the United States.
Let’s not forget that during the campaign, McCain promised Republican loyalists that he would not continue to push for immigration reform favorable to the U.S. newcomers. That is what cost him any chance of getting a significant share of the Latino voter bloc.
That is the key to remember. Many Latinos voted against the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. It is going to take some concrete action on the part of Obama to convince this growing chunk of the U.S. electorate that it did not waste its vote in ’08 similar to how Latinos who voted for George W. Bush in 2004 now regret that act.
So to that end, the actions of activists such as Respect/Respeto are understandable. If it reminds Obama and his close allies that they’re going to have to take some sort of action with regards to serious immigration reform, then it is a good thing.
BUT I’M NOT going to get too hung up on watching the clock.
As long as we get some sense of direction by year’s end where an Obama administration is headed on this issue, we will be well off. Getting worked up whether it happens on Day 31 or Day 102 is letting the trivial aspects outweigh the seriousness of the issue.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTE: Check out the clock, if you wish (http://www.respectrespeto.org/es/), and sign up for the Respect/Respeto cause, if you wish to be inundated with e-mails.
If one paid attention to the campaign activity, you heard Obama talk of the need to reform the nation’s immigration laws in ways not hostile to the newcomers.
AND LISTENING TO (or reading the transcript of) Obama’s Inaugural address, one picks up on a tone that is hostile to the xenophobes of this country.
But none of that has eased the concerns of some Latino activists, and those of non-Anglo people in general, that Obama is going to allow the economic troubles facing this country to be his excuse for doing nothing to help revamp the immigration laws in any meaningful way.
There are those activists who literally found his choice of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff as evidence he would do little, since Emanuel in his political past has always preferred to avoid dealing with immigration – arguing that immigrants benefit from Democrats because they squash the harmful measures touted by many conservative Republicans.
They also note the fact that Obama, as a U.S. senator from Illinois, sided with the political dream of conservatives to erect a physical barrier along several hundred miles of the U.S./Mexico border. His vote was defended as being a political maneuver to prevent those same conservatives from denouncing him publicly on the issue during future campaigns.
WITH THAT AS the situation as Obama enters his second week as U.S. president, there is at least one activist group determined to put pressure on him to ensure that he acts – and the sooner, the better.
Calling themselves “Respect/Respeto,” the group is affiliated with the Phoenix-based Golden Door Foundation has a bilingual website (English y Español) that has a running clock of how deep we are into the Obama Administration without an immigration reform proposal being proposed.
While it is not realistic to expect an immigration reform proposal to be introduced only eight days into Obama’s first term in office (which is where the clock was on Wednesday), the group says it seriously wants something to be offered up within the first 100 days – that mythical time period by which all presidencies allegedly set the tone for their entire time in office.
The group’s executive director, Lydia Guzman, said she thinks it is totally appropriate for Latinos to expect some respect from Obama, since the Latino voter bloc provided solid support for Obama during his campaign against Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
“THE HISPANIC VOTE was significant to President Obama’s victory,” Guzman said, in a prepared statement. “Immigration reform needs to be a priority in Obama’s first 100 days.”
The group contends that the stimulus package desired by Obama to give the economy a jolt is just as good a place as any to do something about immigration, since many of the newcomers to this country come here because of a desire to work.
Jobs and immigration are two issues that are intertwined.
The group also believes that the increases in the number of Democrats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate give Obama enough supporters (in theory) to support immigration reform.
THEY EVEN SEEM to have some belief that McCain will revert back to his old way of thinking about immigration and work to get some Republican support for immigration reform that does not focus solely on increasing the number of deportations from the United States.
Let’s not forget that during the campaign, McCain promised Republican loyalists that he would not continue to push for immigration reform favorable to the U.S. newcomers. That is what cost him any chance of getting a significant share of the Latino voter bloc.
That is the key to remember. Many Latinos voted against the Republican Party’s presidential candidate. It is going to take some concrete action on the part of Obama to convince this growing chunk of the U.S. electorate that it did not waste its vote in ’08 similar to how Latinos who voted for George W. Bush in 2004 now regret that act.
So to that end, the actions of activists such as Respect/Respeto are understandable. If it reminds Obama and his close allies that they’re going to have to take some sort of action with regards to serious immigration reform, then it is a good thing.
BUT I’M NOT going to get too hung up on watching the clock.
As long as we get some sense of direction by year’s end where an Obama administration is headed on this issue, we will be well off. Getting worked up whether it happens on Day 31 or Day 102 is letting the trivial aspects outweigh the seriousness of the issue.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTE: Check out the clock, if you wish (http://www.respectrespeto.org/es/), and sign up for the Respect/Respeto cause, if you wish to be inundated with e-mails.
2 comments:
I agree that watching the clock is not what we should be doing. What interests me is that it takes a small group in AZ to put some plan on the table to draw attention to forthcoming reform.
Granted, we know it's going to be a little while and that there's already a placeholder S.9 bill but why is it that there are no national leader groups letting the grassroots know what's going on?
IF there is a strategy, why is it that it's not shared amongst those who are interested in passage?
Why must it be the little groups, the underfunded ones, the ones that have to drive the agenda to either radical or edgy ideas without a backdrop of a moderate proposal?
Vamos lideres, si se puede comunicar un poco mas!!!
Immigration is an issue that must be solved immediately. I think Obama understands the ethical predicaments on this issue.
One of the common predicaments is that many "illegal aliens" work, pay taxes and have children who were born in this country (making the children American citizens) - you can't just make 'em leave because of no papers. Justice is more than following a set of technicalities
Things like this take time to solve and solutions are likely to become relative depending on the situation of one immigrant to another.
Unfortunately, the country is faced with other serious issues as well. So immigration reforms are likely to be extended even further.
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