. Posted on 11/05/2014 6:01:27 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
President Barack Obama took a major gamble when he punted executive action on immigration earlier this fall to try and save red-state Senate Democrats – and it didn’t pay off.
Vulnerable Senate Democrats who publicly opposed executive action, from Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina to Mark Pryor in Arkansas, weren’t spared from defeat by the delay. Instead, it may have well have hurt Democratic Sen. Mark Udall in purple Colorado, a state with a significant Latino electorate who voted the incumbent out.
With steep Democratic losses, Obama is left with a Republican-controlled Senate, whose leaders are already warning Obama that life will become much more difficult if he goes ahead with promised executive action halting deportations for undocumented immigrants. Meanwhile, the president faces an even more infuriated community of Latinos and immigrant-rights activists who see no political upside to the executive action delay.
“You repress the vote in the Latino community and what did you come up with?” an angry Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) asked during a press conference in Chicago Wednesday. “You lost Arkansas anyway. You lost [North Carolina] anyway. You lost the Senate anyway.”
“If this November was any indication about what happens when you try to toy with your principles and your beliefs, what did you get?,” Gutierrez continued. “Nothing.”
The White House put off executive action this fall amid a growing chorus from concerned Senate Democrats, ranging from more moderate members such as Hagan and Pryor to liberals like Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota. The surge of unaccompanied migrant children at the southern border this summer upended the politics of immigration as the public’s focus turned sharply to border security.
One concern from the White House was that if Obama forged ahead with executive action in the fall and Democrats lost seats, the political narrative would turn against immigration and indefinitely harm future prospects for a legislative overhaul.
The one solace for immigration advocates is that Republican Scott Brown – who ran to the right on immigration in his race against Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire – lost Tuesday. But there was little else beyond that.
“What did they get for the delay? Hard to argue the strategy saved incumbents running in red states,” said Frank Sharry, the executive director of America’s Voice. “On top of that, candidates who counted on a huge turnout of Latinos lost, such as Mark Udall in Colorado and Joe Garcia of Florida.”
Waiting until after the midterms adds another conundrum for Obama: Whether he should make such a sweeping move on immigration when Republicans – who oppose what they’ve termed “executive amnesty” – secured decisive victories nationwide.
During a post-election press conference on Wednesday, Obama refused to back down from his pledge to take executive action by the end of the year, despite Tuesday’s political bloodbath for Democrats.
“Before the end of the year, we’re gonna take whatever lawful actions that I can take that I believe will improve the functioning of our immigration system, that will allow us to surge additional resources to the border where I think the vast majority of Americans have the deepest concern,” he said.
Any executive action Obama issues could be superceded by an immigration bill if lawmakers choose to send him one, either in the lame-duck session or in the next Congress, the president said. He encouraged such a measure, but noted that “what I’m not going to do is wait.”
But in a Wednesday press conference shortly before Obama spoke, incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said executive action on immigration would be “like waving a red flag in front of a bull.”
And six of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate – led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) – wrote to outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday to push for measures that would block Obama’s impending executive immigration action in the lame-duck session.
“It would be a very reckless option for the president to move forward given the results” on Tuesday, said Roy Beck, the executive director of Numbers USA, a group that favors more restrictions on immigration. “He’s facing true opposition now. It’s almost a united Republican front.”
Republican senator-elect David Perdue from Georgia told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham on Wednesday that voters elected him to “get in a dog fight” to prevent Obama from following through on executive action.
“This executive amnesty issue has a lot of people really concerned here in Georgia,” Perdue said. “We have to do what we can to stop that.”
Still, administration officials are forging ahead.
The Obama administration is considering two key factors in determining whether immigrants here illegally should be spared from deportations through executive action: how long they have been in the United States and their family ties, according to sources briefed on the ongoing discussions.
For instance, administration officials have floated requiring an undocumented immigrant to have been here anywhere from five to 10 years in order to be shielded from deportations, according to an immigration advocate with direct knowledge of the deliberations.
Obama is also considering tweaks to the 2012 administration directive that halted deportations for hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants, the advocate said – changes that could broaden the number of immigrants who qualify under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gives deportation protection and work permits.
For example, DACA requires that an immigrant be younger than 31 years old as of June 15, 2012, to qualify. If that cutoff age were increased, it could admit more young immigrants into the program.
But the electoral rout Tuesday leaves immigration advocates worried whether the White House will decide to shrink the scope of administrative relief from deportations.
“I am concerned that the president will decide, and his advisers will encourage him, to simply take up half a loaf of justice and fairness,” Gutierrez said in a phone interview later Wednesday. “That the relief will not be broad, will not be generous.”
I mentioned this on another thread.
The Democrats are the ones who have to reign in Obama on this, to save themselves.
Today, he said, “If Republicans send me a bill I can sign, I will. If not, I’ll take Executive Action.”
Do want I want, or I’ll do it anyway.
Any Republican who supports amnesty AKA comprehensive immigration reform or whatever euphemism might be invoked for it, will not get my vote.
Any politician who does not put our country first will not get my vote.
WRONG!!...U get a Republic Senate!....lol...Did u ask about principles???....Next question?
You know the RINO apologists will be coming back next time around telling us not to rock the boat and all that and to keep the RINO’s around.
Interesting. What may have hurt Udall is perhaps, just maybe, Latinos don't like illegals either. Their jobs are just as threatened as Anglo's are--in fact, even more. Catholic Latinos, which I think compromise the majority, don't like abortion either. Plus, with the country up in arms about the illegal invasion, resident, legal Latinos are afraid that people will turn against them too.
Apparently Ted Cruz has a handle on this…this may get interesting if the entire House/Senate republican contingent gets very very smart about Latinos.
POST OF THE DAY!......."to save themselves"......they will now HAVE TO VOTE on reality instead of ideology...lol.....their ideology will crumble like a cheap suit..."in their own best interest" of course....
As Obama famously (and stupidly) said, “Don’t call my bluff”.
Barry is looking for Congress to rescue him from ill-adviced and most likely illegal executive action. It’s clear now he intends to do all he can to weaken the country until his last day in office (when numerous pardons will likely be issued for his co-conspirators).
La Raza Gutiérrez should be tried for treason.
I rest my case!! RT @seungminkim: In my dream reporter world, Luis Gutierrez runs for president against Lindsey Graham #2016
https://twitter.com/kausmickey/status/519953274972033024
He’s going to do it before the end of the year.
He will cut the legs out from under republicans before the new congress is even sworn in.
Then dare them to retaliate.
That way he dictates the agenda.
Exactly.
Yes, he should be.
He held back executive amnesty. He held back 0-care price hikes. People are going to be totally pissed off and they are going to expect that the GOP congress to take action.
Ebola has been of the news c/o the eugenicist Obola czar. Now if the Ebola cases get out of control, the pressure to control the border will be intense and even rino GOPs will be unable to avoid the issue.
Control the border or face impeachment!
. Hey GOPe.....this works for you also.....
"“If this November was any indication about what happens when you try to toy with your principles and your beliefs, what did you get?,” . “Nothing.”
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