President Obama

RECENT POSTS

April 17, 2012 | 11:28 AM | By

Skeptical reaction to Obama’s second-term immigration reform promise

One impressive thing about President Obama’s recent pledge that he’d try to get comprehensive immigration reform passed in his second term if reelected, made during a televised interview with the Spanish-language Univision network, is the seemingly bipartisan nature of the unhappy reactions that skeptics have been posting online.

During a network interview Friday, Obama said: “I can promise that I will try to do it in the first year of my second term. I want to try this year. The challenge we’ve got on immigration reform is very simple. I’ve got a majority of Democrats who are prepared to vote for it, and I’ve got no Republicans who are prepared to vote for it.”

A good intention perhaps, but much of the online reaction since has tended to bring up where the road paved with good intentions leads to. During Obama’s first term, immigration reform efforts like the Dream Act have failed while enforcement-based policies like the controversial Secure Communities fingerprint-sharing program have stuck, contributing to record deportations.

The end result, if reaction to Obama’s statement is any indication, is skepticism from voters who had hoped for comprehensive immigration reform by now – and jeers from those who don’t support it. On both right- and left-leaning websites, critics have been recalling similar campaign promises in 2008 and dismissing Obama’s statement as election-year pandering, with reactions ranging from yawns to snark. Here are a few comments from a handful of sites.

Under a piece in the left-leaning Firedoglake, GlenJo wrote:

Wow, this from the guy that deports more people than Bush.

What won’t he say to get votes?

What will he do once he gets them?

And this one from Charles, posted in the conservative National Journal:

Bo panders to hispanics, Promises amnesty for illegal alien lawbreakers. Does this radical have no shame.

On the left-leaning social justice magazine site ColorLines, which posted a story yesterday, Noreformboycottcensus posted:

“I can promise that I will try to do …” What a bunch of BS. We heard it all before. Obama had 2 years of Democratic majority in Congress and still he choose not to work on immigration reform. Obama, give us a reason to vote for you other that “Republicans are even worth”.

And under a piece in the conservative Hot Air blog (which also featured comments along the lines of “half your family is here illegally”) Nethicus wrote:

Manager to Employee: Look, you really haven’t done anything for the company in the past 3 years, except spend lots of money and actually hurt our bottom line. So don’t expect to work here in November.

Employee: Wait! You don’t want to do that. I have great plans for my contributions to the company after November!

Manager: Why didn’t you do that stuff the past 3 years?

Employee: Look out! Paul Ryan is pushing your grandmother off a cliff! *runs*

Of course, passing comprehensive immigration reform is no easy task, and it does require bipartisan support. Reform proposals under the Bush administration faltered also. In the absence of legislative reforms, one thing the Obama administration has done recently is to make small changes, for example, a proposed administrative tweak under U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that would make it easier for some family members of U.S citizens to legalize.

But the administration’s staunch enforcement record is a difficult hurdle to overcome. Interestingly, the online back-and-forth over Obama’s statement to Univision has been similar to that in a long string of comments under a piece last year in the liberal Daily Kos, which cited past examples of the president’s immigration reform pledges. While some defended Obama, several others then vented frustration with his policies, among them YucatanMan who wrote:

He has zero credibility on immigration after his utterly shattered promises.
Worse, as KOS points out, his administration has vigorously — enthusiastically and viciously — gone after undocumented immigrants who are not guilty of any violent crimes.
We know it.  He knows it. His administration has made the number of deportations an evaluation milestone in the performance appraisals of ICE agents.
It’ll be interesting to see how he tries to salvage this self-created mess.  Broken promises are pretty hard to smooth over. 
FILED UNDER: Immigration reform, President Obama, Record deportations, Secure Communities, Univision
January 27, 2012 | 12:11 PM | By

Readers sound off on Obama and immigration, and then some

Screen shot from YouTube.com

A post following up on Tuesday’s State of the Union address titled “Obama’s immigration talk: More yawns than cheers?” has drawn several comments from readers, some directly addressing the president’s brief mention of immigration reform, some not.

In his address Tuesday, President Obama spoke of the need for comprehensive immigration reform, suggesting that if the Dream Act – proposed legislation that would grant conditional legal status to qualifying young people – were to reach his desk, “I will sign it right away.” But this component of his speech wasn’t anything new to those who follow immigration issues, and that was one of the themes of the next day’s reactions in media and elsewhere, samples of which I posted.

In reaction to the post, Skv wrote:

What about thousands of people who came to this country legally, paying taxes and are waiting for their turn to become legal residents. I’m one of them. I came here as a student legally, got a job legally, paying my share of taxes, doing my bit to the community I live in and am waiting for my turn to obtain permanent legal status for the past 7 years.

Is there any closure to our problems? It is rather sad to see that people who are illegal in this country are given importance than people who are here legally.

Hope replied:

Sorry Skv…I came here legally as student and never had a chance to get my resident till I felt in love with my current wife. We applied for my green card but we’ve been fighting with Immigration for 2 years because THEY believe our marriage is not BONA FIDE! I’ve been here for 14 years and when I tried to get my residence in a legal way that’s when my life and my wife’s become a nightmare! THIS IMMIGRATION IS BROKEN AND IT NEEDS TO BE FIXED!

At this point my suggestion is …come here legally or illegally – the currently Immigration will give you hard time whether you are legal or not!

Pedro Rita wrote:

Indeed. I am here 14 years also, legally working doing my own volunteer program for over 30 kids with disabilities totally free, with a PHD wife that just finished her studies and 3 Americans kids. I am waiting for my approved green card for over 5 years and looks like I will have to wait for 2 or more years until I get it.

My work creates 15 jobs for Americans and if I leave they all immediately will be out of work. Some bill must be approved to help us with this backlog, even something allowing using the old visas (350.000) from 2002 to 2006 that were not used. We need anything to help us out.

Sue88 wrote:

The legal immigrants who helped elect Obama came here legally for the most part. Why do they want people who commit crimes, work under the table, steal jobs from them  to get special consideration when everyone else plays by the rules?????

Prado4587 (who posts this often) replied:
Because Americans demand and consume the goods and services produced by workers who come or stay here illegally to produce the goods and services that we demand and consume. A lot of illegal immigrants left during the recession and after as Americans eased back their demand and consumption of these goods and services like construction. Unless we cut back on demand and consumption permanently, which will be hard when the economy picks up, or increase the number of immigration visas which is woefully too low to meet supply and demand, we’re going to have illegal aliens in the U.S.
Oiwhfljxcn replied to this conversation:
Do you think Sue, when you buy something and the price of the service isnt enough to pay more than 8 dollars/hour for the workers, you are playing by the rule? You generate illegal immigration because you dont pay enough what your fellow Americans are willing to work for. And I dont blame them for that. … Till you dont pay a decent price dont say you are playing by the rule.

Obama’s immigration policies have caused him to lose ground with Latino voters. The administration has made policy changes lately that will benefit some immigrants, including ongoing reviews of deportation cases and a proposed administrative tweak that would let undocumented green card seekers to apply for a special waiver in the U.S. instead of abroad, but broader reforms have yet to occur. Meanwhile, the administration has moved ahead with tough enforcement-based programs, like the controversial Secure Communities fingerprint-sharing program, and has carried out a record number of deportations.

Still, polls have continued to show Latino voters favoring the president over Republican rivals who have had an even tougher time courting Latinos, with immigration also a stumbling block.

FILED UNDER: President Obama, SOTU, State of the Union
January 25, 2012 | 11:58 AM | By

Obama’s immigration reform talk: More yawns than cheers?

Last night during his State of the Union speech, President Obama spoke, as he has before, about the need for comprehensive immigration reform. He also brought up, if not by name, the Dream Act, long-proposed legislation that would grant conditional legal status to undocumented young people who arrived in the U.S. before age 16 if they attend college or join the military.

“Send me a law that gives then the chance to earn their citizenship,” Obama said. “I will sign it right away.” But by and large, Obama’s statements regarding immigration didn’t draw much excitement. Here are a few snippets of reaction from media and elsewhere.

The immigration portion of the speech was nothing we haven’t heard before, wrote Elise Foley in the Huffington Post:

When President Obama’s immigration policy staffers gathered to help pen the State of the Union Address passage dedicated to their issue, they didn’t have much to work with. Comprehensive immigration reform never came close, and the Dream Act failed. What’s a speechwriter to do?

Control-C. Control-V.

“I believe as strongly as ever that we should take on illegal immigration,” Obama said in his Tuesday evening speech.

Indeed, he “strongly believe[d] that we should take on, once and for all, the issue of illegal immigration” last year, according to his State of the Union speech.

A CNN opinion piece posted shortly before the speech last night, written by Lanae Erickson of the left-leaning policy think tank Third Way, predicted what might occur when immigration came up:

Count on it. President Obama will devote three sentences to immigration reform in the State of the Union.

Two dozen lawmakers will jump to their feet and applaud. One-third of the audience will give an obligatory clap. The rest will sit silently, stifling a yawn.

Five years ago, comprehensive immigration reform legislation seemed possible and deeply bipartisan. Now it seems as unlikely and distant as President Bush’s mission to Mars.

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein didn’t get specifically into immigration in his Wonkblog today, but had this to say:

Last night’s State of the Union will not take a place alongside Barack Obama’s 2008 speech on race. It won’t be mentioned in the same breath as his 2004 speech in Boston. It didn’t even have the intellectual scope and narrative sweep of his 2011 speech in Osawatomie, Kansas.

Rather, it was a laundry list of policies, along the lines of the State of the Unions Bill Clinton delivered late in his presidency. Which makes perfect sense. Obama is staffed by much of the same team that wrote those State of the Unions.

And more along these lines, in different words, from Victor Landa at News Taco:

He can afford to play from his base because the opposition has left the filed open. So he reiterated many of the Democratic points and positions that he’s been hitting for three years (immigration, homeowner relief, student loans, etc…), and strike a note toward the center by saying what the American citizenry has been saying all along — Washington is broken.

How did some of those young immigrants who stand to benefit from the legislation Obama was talking about react? Not with much enthusiasm, either. Obama’s track record has included record deportations and tightened interior enforcement, which among other things has eroded his Latino support as the November election gets closer. An undocumented student activist group called Dream Team Los Angeles had this line in its statement today:

The President must not blame “election year politics” for four years of inaction and political unwillingness to stand with the immigrant community that helped elect him.

Angelica Salas, director of the advocacy group Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, reacted similarly in another statement:

Although conciliatory in words, the President’s immigration policy remains at a stand-still while the massive and ever-expanding deportation machine is well oiled and humming along. The reform he promised to see through during the first year of his first term is now given short shrift as he outlines his priorities during its last.

At the same time, the president did set himself aside from his Republican competitors, whose own tone on immigration has not been winning over disenchanted Obama supporters. Candidate Mitt Romney has vowed to veto the Dream Act and most recently talked about encouraging “self-deportation,” while his chief rival Newt Gingrich, initially more lenient and favoring a path to citizenship for some, has shifted positions during the campaign. Gingrich most recently said he’d favor a military version of the Dream Act, without a college component.

FILED UNDER: Immigration speech, Obama, President Obama, SOTU, State of the Union
June 13, 2011 | 12:37 PM | By

Obama and immigration: More details from a poll of Latino voters

Source: impreMedia-Latino Decisions Tracking Poll, June 9, 2011

The results of a nationwide poll of Latino voters released last week found immigration to be a personal issue for many. Among other things, out of a sample of 500 registered voters in 21 states, 53 percent said they knew someone who is undocumented, and one-fourth said they knew a person or family who has faced immigrant detention or deportation.

Today, the polling firm Latino Decisions and impreMedia, parent company of the Spanish-language Los Angeles newspaper La Opinión, announced more detailed results from their most recent joint tracking poll.

These provided a sampling of Latino voters’ opinions of President Obama, in particular their opinions of his handling of immigration issues.

From a summary of the results, some highlights:

48% approve of Obama’s handling of immigration issue; 38% disapprove

48% say Democrats are doing a good job of outreach to Hispanics; 31% say Democrats don’t care too much; 7% say Dems are being hostile

12% say Republicans are doing a good job of outreach to Hispanics; 49% say GOP doesn’t care too much; 23% say GOP is being hostile

46% think the lack of immigration reform since ’08 is understandable given all the issues facing the country; 42% say Obama should have pushed harder to pass reform

50% think immigration reform has not passed because Republicans are blocking passage; 33% think it has not passed because Obama did not push hard enough

51% think the President’s recent outreach on immigration is a serious attempt to pass reform; 41% think the President is just saying what Latinos want to hear because the election is approaching

55% say Republican calls for increased border security is an excuse to block immigration reform; 30% think increasing border security is a legitimate concern

Respondents were also asked how they plan to vote in 2012. Almost half, 49 percent, said they were certain they would vote for Obama; 17 percent said they were leaning toward Obama. Ten percent said they would certainly vote Republican, and 12 percent said they were leaning toward voting for a Republican candidate. Twelve percent reported being undecided.

Latino Decisions and impreMedia have been working together to produce a series of six polls exploring the attitudes of Latino voters. This is the third in the series. The most recent poll measured the importance of immigration among Latino voters as a federal policy issue.

FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, impreMedia, La Opinion, Latino Decisions, Latino voters, President Obama
May 10, 2011 | 3:15 PM | By

Report: Immigration tops the list for Latino voters, and it’s personal

Photo by nathangibbs/Flickr (Creative Commons)

President Obama’s speech in El Paso, Texas today regarding immigration reform has been characterized by some as an effort to appeal to Latino voters while defending his immigration record. And for good reason, a new poll indicates, because the Latino electorate remains focused on immigration as a front-burner issue.

The poll measured the importance of immigration as a federal policy issue with different subsets of Latino voters; it is one of a series of tracking polls conducted by impreMedia (the parent company of La Opinión) and the polling firm Latino Decisions.

According to the results, Latino voters who were asked to identify the most important issues that leaders in Washington, D.C. should address placed immigration at the top of the list overall, above the economy, education and health care.

From “One Year After SB 1070: Why Immigration Will Not Go Away.” Source: Latino Decisions

The priorities varied among smaller subsets: For example, U.S.-born Latino voters ranked immigration second behind the economy, while first-generation immigrants ranked the economy second. And interestingly, while both Latino Democrats and Republicans ranked immigration as the top issue to address, more Republicans than Democrats placed it at the top of the list.

Today’s Latino electorate weighs immigration more heavily than prior generations, according to the report. Recent enforcement-based policies, which have affected Latinos beyond just the undocumented population, have made the issue personal for many. From the report:

The vigorous enforcement of deportation policy has a palpable, direct, negative impact on daily life for millions of Latinos, not just unauthorized immigrants. Communities, families, businesses and schools absorb the impact when relatives, parents, customers, friends, and students are suddenly gone.

…For millions of Latinos, immigration politics is a reality, not an abstraction observed in news stories.  As President Obama found during his Univision Town Hall on Hispanic Education event, it is difficult to engage Latinos on other issues when immigration, and all that it implies, lingers in the political context. This is a sharp shift from prior generations with little demonstrable interest in the issue. Candidates and strategists relying on such out-dated trends, feeling confident they can win over the Latino electorate without addressing immigration because “Latino voters don’t care about immigration”, ignore the reality upon us today.

The complete report is on the Latino Decisions website.

FILED UNDER: El Paso, Latino voters, President Obama
April 27, 2011 | 5:25 PM | By

Immigration, foreignness and the ‘birther’ debate

“Birther” billboard, June 2009

In John F. Kennedy’s day, it was the anti-Catholics who dogged the Irish American presidential candidate, raising fears that having a Catholic descendant of immigrants in the White House could mean a United States under the influence of the Vatican and a compromise of the firewall between church and state.

It was referred to as religious bigotry. But it had only been a matter of decades then since Irish immigrants were accepted into mainstream society. While the controversy was over religion, Kennedy’s Irish roots lay close to the surface of the debate.

The same can be said for Barack Obama’s half-Kenyan roots today, amid the so-called “birther” debate that has prompted the White House to release the president’s long-form birth certificate. The accusation that Obama was not born in Hawaii, but in his father’s native Kenya, has dogged him since his campaign days, prompting him back in 2008 to release the more easily obtained short-form birth certificate.

The shorter certificate did not sate Obama’s “birther” foes, and some have already begun to cast doubt on the longer Hawaii state form. Which brings up the question: Even when presented with official documents, why do some people insist on believing Obama is foreign-born? This was not a problem faced by Kennedy, in spite of lingering prejudice over his ethnicity.

But by that time in U.S. history, the once-racialized Irish had been accepted as white Americans. ”Birthers” have insisted that their allegations are not tied to Obama’s race or ethnicity, but to upholding the U.S. Constitution, which stipulates that only a “natural born citizen” can be president. Not so, according to a study highlighted today in USA Today, which points to the role played by racial prejudice.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Politics/Justice, Birthers, President Obama
April 4, 2011 | 1:12 PM | By

Black or mixed race? Obama’s census choice sparks debate over how people identify

Photo by rob.rudloff/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Barack Obama on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, October 2008

More than a hundred comments have been posted so far in reaction to an interesting opinion piece today from the Los Angeles Times’ Gregory Rodriguez on how “the most famous mixed-race person in the world,” President Obama, identified himself racially on his census form last year. He checked off only one race, black. From the piece:

It could have been a historic teaching moment. Instead, President Obama, the most famous mixed-race person in the world, checked off only one race — black — last year on his census form. And in so doing, he missed an opportunity to articulate a more nuanced racial vision for the increasingly diverse country he heads.

The president also bucked a trend. Last month, the Census Bureau announced that the number of Americans who identified themselves as being of more than one race in 2010 grew about 32% over the last decade. The number of people who identified as both white and black jumped an astounding 134%. And nearly 50% more children were identified as multiracial on this census, making that category the fastest-growing youth demographic in the country.

To be sure, the number of people — 9 million, or 2.9% of the population — who identified themselves as of more than one race on their census form is still small. But the trend is clear.

It’s only been since 2000 that Americans have been able to identify themselves on census forms as being of more than one race, and as Rodriguez writes, the increase in those who have since done so on the forms “suggests not only an increase in absolute numbers, but also that people are growing more comfortable with the idea of racial mixing.”

Why did the President, the son of a white mother from the U.S. and black father from Kenya, check only one box? Various explanations are offered in the piece, among them the fact that questions about Obama’s “blackness” have dogged him since before the 2008 campaign. Rodriguez also pointed out the concerns of some black civil rights activists who fear that if more people were to identify as multiracial, the number of those identifying as black, and their corresponding influence, would decrease.

The comments from readers show that there is no clear answer as to why people identify one way or another. One’s particular race – and how one is perceived in society as a result – plays a part. More than anything, the comments, some more polite than others, prove that a multiracial society doesn’t translate into a post-racial one. Here are just a few, unedited save for one typo:

“Importer” wrote:

Let’s do this little test–if you were walking down the street alone at night and Obama was approaching you from the opposite direction, what race would you pick for him on the census form? I think we all know the answer; to pretend otherwise is just foolish. He is black and he knows it.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics/Justice, 2010 Census, Multiracial, President Obama