Obama On Immigration Reform: 'Let's Go Get It Done'

Obama On Immigration Reform: 'Let's Go Get It Done'

By Elise Foley | Huffington Post | 10/24/2013 12:49 pm EDT
Excerpts:

WASHINGTON – “As House Republicans pursue smaller-scale immigration reform that could leave out a new path to citizenship entirely, President Barack Obama attempted on Thursday to rally the troops in support of a comprehensive approach that he says can still be passed by the end of the year.

"There are going to be moments - there are always moments like this in big efforts at reform - where you meet resistance and the press will declare something dead, 'It's not going to happen,' but that can be overcome," Obama said during an address to reform supporters at the White House.

Immigration reform has been stalled in the House for months during fights over government spending and the debt ceiling that left some Republicans unwilling to work with the president on the issue at all. But now, House Republicans seem to be turning back to the immigration

House bills so far, though, seem far away from what Obama has proposed. House GOP leaders have said they will not hold a vote on the Senate-passed comprehensive reform bill or any other measure the conference opposes, which puts them in a tight spot for passing anything to legalize the status of undocumented immigrants - a must for Democrats.

Instead, they said they will pursue piecemeal reform measures, a list that so far might include border security, enforcement, legal immigration, guest workers and young undocumented immigrants who came as children.

"If House Republicans have new and different additional ideas for how we should move forward, then we want to hear them," he said. "I'll be listening. ... But what we can't do is just sweep the problem under the rug one more time."

Doing nothing, Obama said, would be neither smart nor fair. "It doesn’t make sense," he said. "We have kicked this particular can down the road for too long."

House Democrats introduced a bill earlier this month combining the gang of eight bill and a bipartisan border security bill that passed out of the House Homeland Security Committee unanimously but has not been brought to the floor.

Obama said he thinks some Republicans have a knee-jerk opposition to anything he supports, even if it has broad support, as he said immigration reform does.

"Obviously just because something is smart and fair and good for the economy and fiscally responsible and supported by business and labor and the evangelical community and many Democrats and many Republicans, that does not mean it will actually get done," he quipped to laughter from the crowd.

But he insisted the issue shouldn't be viewed through a political prism, although he added that "good policy is good politics."

"I'm not running for office again," he said. ‘I just believe this is the right thing to do.’ "

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/24/barack-obama-immigration_n_4156403.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
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IMO: As the immigration has been stalled in the House for months now, and leaders in the House say they will not put the Senate’s comprehensive Bill up for a vote because they want to piecemeal it to death, taking months to go thru each immigration problem one at a time.

It is as if they cannot program putting a bill together that gives more than one fact into a package of three or more!

President Obama understands perfectly the unusual antipathy demonstrated toward him for the last five years, and he said “I’m not running for office again” and “I just believe this is the right thing to do.”

So the ball is in the House once again to try to make them do their job, but it still seems that their hatred is so strong for Obama that they are content to leave the immigration bill in limbo while they nurse their insane dislike for a sitting president.

How psychotic is that?

 

Let's go get it done? After the fiasco with Obamacare, one can hardly expect anything good to come out of Obama's initiatives... go play at something with Mr. Reggie Love, Obama; our country will be better off if you stop meddling in it's affairs.

 

Let it die. We heard their promises before and every one was broken. Making them citizens only opens the door for millions more to sneak in here and wait for the next citizenship train, Stupid is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome.

Anyone thinks they will put on thousands of extra border patrol and keep them on for more than a year, I have some beach front property to sell you here in Arizona.

 

How many times have politicans said that?

 

Half the country gets a government check now........let's grant amnesty to another 20-25 million low-skilled, low IQ, welfare grabbin' folks......great idea for the republic

 

How many of those 11 million do you think will be below the government poverty line and join the 47% of Americans not paying Federal taxes, but getting big refunds back from the IRS and also drawing welfare? We will have over 50% of the population not paying Federal taxes, but putting more of a strain on our welfare.

This country is in a battle with the rest of the industrial world for brain power. If we are to keep up, we need more scientist, math teachers. More doctors, inventors. We don't need more people coming here and living off our welfare state.

I'm not saying we have to throw them out, I have never been for that. But no way in hell would I make them citizens.

 

The bull is in the china closet again. Grab your assets!

 

No amnesty unless we seal up the border REALLY tight, and then enforce SEVERE penalties for anyone hiring an illegal immigrant.

Otherwise this mess will just repeat.

 

Immigration reform? Yep, anything to get the focus off of the obamacare fiasco......hahahaha!

 

how about we enforce our existing laws?

What ever happened to a "criminal cannot profit from their crime"?

They are here illegally, they should not be rewarded.

 

There already is a path to citizenship, and anyone who says different is a liar....

 

They ain't going to do it. They promised to put thousands of new border guards on and they might for a few months or a year. Then they'll pull them off because they don't have the money to keep them on. I was there when Reagan heard all there promises and granted three million citizenship. Kennedy said Never Again. Now it's 11-12 million and we hear the same empty promises. Time to smarten up.

 

Liberals never think anything through to its logical conclusion. Sure they may add to the economy in some ways but what will they take out? How many will be responsible for their own lives without taking from the now taxpayers. How many will be living in poverty and take welfare, food stamps and the rest? We have few jobs now and we're going to add millions off new citizens???

Secure the border and pick and choose which ones you make citizens, but this blanket amnesty is ludicrous!!!

 

Not a good excuse to let Obama wreck the country even further.

 

You would think Obama would be working night and day on getting Obamacare sorted out right now and make it do all the things he promised it would do. It seems he doesn't actually have much interest in his signature legislation after all.

I predicted that as soon as the government shutdown issue fell out of the headlines, Obama would need something else to use to attempt to keep everyone's attention off Disastercare, and here we have it.

 

Yeah, I know they will never actually DO it. That is why, although I am liberal on many topics, I am very conservative on this one.

No amnesty, in my opinion.

 

Spot on, but in total contrast to the narrative set forth by this wave of illegal immigration reform. First we don't enforce our existing laws, then we hinder anyone who tries, then we push to reward those who are here illegally because...well....they're here? Tax payers are going to take another hit if this POS "reform" gets through, just like they are for HC "reform" now.
Whenever the government talks reform it's because they've screwed something so badly it needs reform, but instead of reform that fixes with the problem, they just pile on and make it worse.
Me, I'd like to reform DC by getting rid of 99% of these self-serving bastards and get replace them 300 Joe the Plumbers.

 

Capt. Fail needs to shut up and actually do his job. He's the epitome of an empty suit.

 

Who said it was an excuse? I'm saying that because everyone, democrat and republican alike acknowledge our immigration system is broken but won't do anything about it.

 

Not true. Speaking in broad terms, Conservatives want to lock the gate first, and then do something about illegals. Liberals want to legalize illegals and then, maybe, do something about the borders. Big difference.

 

And it will never happen...been hearing it for years. The border will never be really secure.

 

Oh so both sides want to do something about the broken immigration system but lack the support to do it?

 

We certainly heard "Law of the land" alot the last couple of weeks but not for immigration of course.....

 

No. , the conservatives want to stop the flood of illegal aliens into the country. The Liberals would like to legalize all the illegal aliens that in the country already, while doing nothing about the border security.

 

So the liberals have a plan to deal with illegal immigration and the conservatives do as well correct?