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Obama Reverses Stance On Immigration
The Washington Times ^ | May 09th 2009

Posted on 05/09/2009 8:43:48 PM PDT by Steelfish

Obama reverses stance on immigration

Co-opts policy he once mocked

By Stephen Dinan May 8, 2009

On the thorniest of political issues, President Obama has embraced the enforcement-first position on immigration that he criticized during last year's presidential campaign, and he now says he can't move forward with the type of comprehensive bill he wants until voters are convinced that the borders can be enforced.

Having already backed off his pledge to have an immigration bill this year, Mr. Obama boosted his commitment to enforcement in the budget released Thursday.

The spending blueprint calls for extra money to build an employee-verification system and to pay for more personnel and equipment to patrol the border.

This security-first stance is not unlike that of President George W. Bush, Bush Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, who said their immigration bill failed in 2007 because voters didn't trust the government to be serious about enforcement.

"If the American people don't feel like you can secure the borders," Mr. Obama said at his press conference last week, "then it's hard to strike a deal that would get people out of the shadows and on a pathway to citizenship who are already here, because the attitude of the average American is going to be, 'Well, you're just going to have hundreds of thousands of more coming in each year.' "

Republicans say the shift is a sign that Mr. Obama, who during the campaign repeatedly called the issue a priority, is uncertain how to move forward.

"I don't think Barack Obama understands the immigration issue. I don't know that he has spoken about it in any depth during his entire political career," said Rep. Steve King of Iowa, the top Republican on the House Judiciary subcommittee that handles immigration.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; amnesty; bho; bho44; bhoillegals; bo; bordersecurity; brokenpromises; bs; democrats; enforcement; illegalinvasion; immigrantlist; immigration; obama; second100days
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1 posted on 05/09/2009 8:43:48 PM PDT by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish

Is there anything left that he hasn’t changed his mind on?


2 posted on 05/09/2009 8:44:48 PM PDT by BlessedBeGod (Obama's not the anti-Christ, but is making the way for him as John the Baptist did for Jesus.)
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To: BlessedBeGod
Someone must have let Obama know about the unemployment problem in this country and how that's related to the number of illegal aliens still here.

Guy's been elected 6 months now and hasn't done anything about unemployment!

3 posted on 05/09/2009 8:46:22 PM PDT by muawiyah
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To: BlessedBeGod

So no more ‘si si puede’?


4 posted on 05/09/2009 8:46:51 PM PDT by max americana
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To: Steelfish

The spending blueprint calls for extra money to build an employee-verification system...

And just where else will the government use this?
This is not a good thing.


5 posted on 05/09/2009 8:46:57 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: tet68

This guy flip-flops more than John Kerry...


6 posted on 05/09/2009 8:49:42 PM PDT by cranked
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To: Steelfish

Better late than never.

Of course I feared during the campaign, that he would shut the door to Mexicans and open the door to Africans. We need to make sure that Kenya or Indonesia isn’t the next country with 90% of it’s citizens in the U.S.


7 posted on 05/09/2009 8:49:52 PM PDT by DannyTN ( Impeach and Deport)
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To: Steelfish

Good sign — it means he’s reacting to the political ramifications even though he has a large majority in Congress. Hopefully that means he’ll slow down on some other issues as well.


8 posted on 05/09/2009 8:50:29 PM PDT by Numbers Guy
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To: muawiyah

You might have it there. I haven’t seen zer0 do anything positive for the USA


9 posted on 05/09/2009 8:51:06 PM PDT by reefdiver (Freedom - From Govt. - Educators - CNN)
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To: BlessedBeGod

COLB, Socialism, Taxes, Spending, to name a few.


10 posted on 05/09/2009 8:51:22 PM PDT by TheZMan ("I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.")
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To: Steelfish

Reid said last fall that, if they didn’t get immigration passed within the first 30 days, it would probably get shelved.

This puts Obama up +1 over McCain. +2 actually. Immigration was one of McCain’s darlings. And McCain vowed to close GITMO on Day 1 of his presidency.


11 posted on 05/09/2009 8:51:33 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: BlessedBeGod
Is there anything left that he hasn’t changed his mind on?

At least he changed it in the right direction. However, no matter what the government does, they are never going to be trusted on this issue. As soon as they get their "comprehensive reform," the enforcement will stop.

12 posted on 05/09/2009 8:53:50 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: BlessedBeGod

Don’t buy it. Obama is a practiced deceiver. He says one thing, while he does another. Obama cut the spending on building the border fence this week, while he’s saying we need to convince the people that the border is secure.


13 posted on 05/09/2009 8:58:27 PM PDT by Jabba the Nutt (Obama, the American Allende.)
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To: Steelfish

“O” lies.


14 posted on 05/09/2009 8:59:23 PM PDT by edcoil (Taxes only help an evil government)
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To: muawiyah

I agree.

He might have gotten a clue about how much money illegals cost in health care, too.

“money to build an employee-verification system”

Don’t we already have e verify?


15 posted on 05/09/2009 8:59:28 PM PDT by Winstons Julia (:)
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To: Steelfish

“WASHINGTON - The new chairman of the Senate immigration subcommittee vowed Thursday to take on comprehensive immigration reform in this session of Congress.”

Above from May 1, 2009. I view this supposed change in emphasis by Obama about like I viewed the same rhetoric from McCain during the Republican primaries. Just a diversionary tactic to divert attention away from the real goal which is amnesty for about 20 million illegals.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/border/115639.php

Wonder if Obama will be asking those fine Senators to hold off on any action until the border is well secured?

Plus the fact that several posters on other threads have pointed out that Obama’s budget cuts money for the border fence, diverts resources to the Canadian border, as well as plans to end any sort of immigration raid, or workplace raid, etc.

And, this might be just a set up for some enforcement language in an amnesty bill, enforcement language that will be forgotten as soon as an amnesty is passed, just as enforcement language was forgotten in 1987, and ever since.


16 posted on 05/09/2009 9:02:23 PM PDT by Will88
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To: Jabba the Nutt
"Don’t buy it. Obama is a practiced deceiver. He says one thing, while he does another."

You bet your sweet bippi he's a deceiver!

Glad to know that you have him figured out. Now I only wished everyone else in here did!

17 posted on 05/09/2009 9:05:40 PM PDT by Hillarys nightmare (So Proud to be living in "Jesus Land" ! Don't you wish everyone did?)
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To: Jabba the Nutt

Sho nuff. Plus everything he says has an expiration date. Usually measured in hours. Other then the koolaid drinkers, I cannot find anyone who trusts what he says. Says a lot about the dim party who puts up a guy who had zero trustworthyness. Hell, the Boy Scouts would kick him out for being such a weasel. Or at least give him a blanket party.


18 posted on 05/09/2009 9:08:15 PM PDT by Texas resident (Older but smarter)
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To: edcoil

“O” lies and I’m afraid that a lot of people are going to die. Just a hunch.


19 posted on 05/09/2009 9:09:13 PM PDT by Texas resident (Older but smarter)
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To: bcsco

For the AFIRE ping list.

I doubt he’s sincere about following through with an enforcement-first policy, he’s just mouthing the words. But the fact that he is forced to mouth them is a bit of a victory in itself.


20 posted on 05/09/2009 9:13:05 PM PDT by Kevmo ( It's all over for this Country as a Constitutional Republic. ~Leo Donofrio, 12/14/08)
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