President Barack Obama has again reaffirmed his pledge to act on immigration reform without Congress – but not until after the midterm elections next month. Speaking at the annual gala held by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute on Thursday, Obama again tried to placate activists angry at his decision to delay enacting immigration reform by using his executive powers.
“Fixing our broken immigration system is one more big thing we have to do and one more thing we will do,” Obama declared. The president had initially promised to take executive action on immigration reform before the end of summer, only to decide to postpone this action until after the midterm elections in November out of fear that his actions would impact on the chances of the Democrats retaining control of the Senate.
Even as Obama was speaking inside Washington Convention Center, some disgruntled immigration advocates were picketing outside. “The president’s time to mend any relationship http://www.us-immigration.com/us-immigration-news/wp-admin/post-new.phpwith our community is quickly running out,” said United We Dream’s managing director, Cristina Jimenez. Obama’s speech took place just a day after the revelation that 438,000 immigrants have been deported from the United States this year – a new record that has left angry critics dubbing the president “deporter-in-chief”.
The New York Immigration Coalition’s civic engagement coordinator, Murad Awawdeh, says that Obama’s decision to postpone action has had a devastating result on its efforts.