Posted on 09/09/2014 10:07:05 AM PDT by Second Amendment First
When Barack Obama and I last sat down in 2006, I refused to shake his hand. Today, I still won’t. His announcement last weekend that he would delay executive action on immigration is his fifth broken promise to Latinos on this all-important issue for our community. He has been blind to the pain of the 1,100 deportations our communities face every day and the anguish our families feel as they are swung back and forth as political pawns.
The question for us Latinos — especially the nearly 24 million of us eligible to vote — is, what to do about this? How can we ensure that the fastest-growing demographic in the country isn’t taken for granted by Democrats who purport to be our allies but often dash our hopes in the face of the least bit of political pressure? There are no obvious or even satisfactory answers, but one thing is clear: We’ve been slapped in the face one too many times by this president. And it probably won’t be the last: Obama has a long record of betraying Latinos — and it predates his days in the White House. I’ve seen it up close.
When Obama ran for the U.S. Senate in 2004, he promised to represent Latinos and lead on immigration reform. His speech during the Democratic National Convention that year captivated me. While busy running six health clinics for low-income and mostly undocumented immigrants on Chicago’s southwest side, I strongly urged every Latino and immigrant registered voter I came across to support Obama. As the daughter of a Mexican immigrant who picked beets in South Dakota in the 1940s and then moved to Chicago to open a successful jukebox business, I was proud to pull the ballot for Obama on Election Day.
But as Illinois’ new senator, instead of working to pass immigration reform, Obama in 2006 voted in favor of building a fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. Security first, then reform, we were told. Sometime later that year, Obama came to Chicago for a damage-control meeting with some 50 of his closest Latino allies. He worked the tables, walking from person to person and shaking everyone’s hand. He extended his hand to me three times and three times I refused. How could I offer that symbol of friendship when he had just stabbed us in the back?
When Obama ran for president, he promised immigration would be the top priority in the first 100 days. I still wanted to believe, so I cast my vote for him again, despite the disappointment from 2006. He broke that promise, opting instead to spend his political capital on passing his signature health care reform program. He went on to deport more than 400,000 immigrants in his first year — far more than George W. Bush in his last year. On the anniversary of his first year in office, Hoy, the Spanish-language newspaper in Chicago, ran a full-page picture of the president on its cover under the headline “Promesa Por Cumplir” (“Unkept Promise”).
And still we held out hope that this president — our president — would make something happen. So again I listened eagerly when Obama delivered an immigration speech at American University in 2010 promising action on immigration reform. With a Democrat-controlled Senate and House, how could changes not be forthcoming? As always, Obama said all of the right things, while doing the opposite of what he pledged. He said, for example, how terrible it was to rip a mother from her child, even as he went on to become the deporter-in-chief — removing more than 2 million immigrants, including the mothers and fathers of some 150,000 U.S. citizen children, each year. In the run-up to his second election, Obama vowed that immigration would be the top priority in his second term. Latinos made their mark on election night 2012, and many voted with the plights of their undocumented mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles and best friends in mind. We delivered for Obama, with 71 percent of us supporting the president. Only 27 percent favored Mitt Romney — a lower percentage than Republican candidates received in the last three presidential elections. Our votes made a difference: We helped Obama win the key states of Nevada, New Mexico, Florida and Colorado.
We believed in Obama’s “Audacity of Hope.” We put him back in the White House expecting him to keep his end of the bargain — finally.
Carmen Velasquez is founder and retired executive director of Alivio Medical Center in Chicago.
Libs have different idea what is good than we do.
In their minds we are selfish ones.
Between this years election and the bad press on refugees its not a good time for him to do this.
But when he does give the order the media will celebrate all the happy families together on camera as they did with the gays.
Seriously, this tells us more about Velasquez than it does 0bama. Smart lobbyists play both sides of the street - Romney might have delivered more than 0bama did, after all - and stupid ones go tribal and vote Democrat despite the daggers already sticking out of their backs. I have less than zero sympathy. Actually, I think it's funny as hell.
I wish just once I’d hear one of these “Latino activists” say, “Gee, whites are people, too. And Americans and legal immigrants of all races, well, they matter, too. I can understand why they might want their immigration laws enforced. We ARE taking their jobs. And those who work ARE paying to educate our kids, give us food stamps, etc., etc. Maybe we’ve been just a teensy bit selfish in demanding Obama do what WE want, while not considering all the other people with whom we share this country. We demand the right to come here and stay here, yet we don’t care about the rights and wishes of others who were here before us. Maybe we should say ‘thank you’ now and then.”
Yeah, right. When pigs fly.
Or else,what? Are they threatening to burn the country down? I don't know. Sure sounds like it.
Or---this is a wild idea---they all threaten to go home if we 300,000,000 American citizens don't immediately do what 8,000,000 illegals demand that we do. I can dream can't I?
Again, I find the idea so weird that 8,000,000+ illegals and their American citizen supporters can demand that we do their bidding immediately or all hell will break loose. Sad. So sad.
Why do Latinos here want Latinos there to come here? It will only depress their wages further. Are they that clueless on basic economics?
They should have a lottery system for the illegals currently here after the border is secured.
Seal the border first, then a lottery for the ones here illegally now would be the fairest way to deal with them.
The lottery would cost, let’s say...$100 per ticket, and 20 million winners would be drawn.
The tickets would be available for purchase by any property owning American citizen that paid income taxes last year.
Winners would get an illegal to work free in their home or garden for a year. After the year they would be deported.
Then again, stupidity is why their Third World countries are a morass of hellholes.
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Astute observers conjecture that amnesty failed for several reasons:
<><>Gov Jerry Brown fellating the Mexican president for votes;
<><>Mexican president in Cali saying "this is another Mexico;"
<><>Cong Guttierez strutting like an arrogant cock, crowing about "plans in place;"
<><>Americans sensing Gutierrez' "plans" undermine US ntl security;
<><> La Raza whiner insulting Americans who defend their country against invasion.
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