La Raza President 'Done Waiting,' Demands Obama Give Exec Amnesty to 8 Million Illegals

On Friday, La Raza President and CEO Janet Murguia demanded that President Barack Obama give executive amnesty and work permits to as many as eight million illegal immigrants after reports surfaced that Senate Democrats are urging Obama not to unilaterally change the country’s immigration laws before the midterm elections.

Appearing on MSNBC’s Jose Diaz-Balart, Murguia said Obama and Republicans have told illegal immigrants in the past to wait for Congress to act on legislation before complaining that, “and now, there’s some Senate Democrats who are asking us to wait again.” 

“We’re done waiting. We’ve waited long enough,” she said, claiming that 1,100 lives are “shattered” because of deportations every day. “We, as a community, expect him to fulfill his promises.”

Murguia said her community was “frustrated,” claimed that Obama has the “legal authority to step in and act,” and said that “anywhere between three to eight million” illegal immigrants “could be served by an administrative action.”

“For us, we want him to exercise the full authority that he has to provide relief for these individuals and also the opportunity to be able to leverage economic revenues and therefore provide some work permits for these individuals,” she said. 

Murguia also called on Obama to “more fervently exercise prosecutorial discretion” on deportations and enforcement so that illegal immigrant workers like “landscapers” are not targeted. 

“That’s what we’re expecting,” she said. “We just need him to do what he said he would do and act.”

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus gave Obama a wish list of executive actions earlier this year and asked him to give temporary amnesty to every illegal immigrant (nearly 11 million) who would have qualified for amnesty under the Senate’s amnesty bill. Murguia noted that Obama has “a lot of different opportunities for him to act within the law” and has been reviewing different proposals. 

At this year’s La Raza convention, Murguia said that it made her “angry” and “outraged” when she heard Americans against illegal immigration chanting “USA!” in Murrieta, California. As Breitbart News noted, “Murguia did not say anything about the ‘Viva La Raza!’ chants from pro-amnesty advocates in Murrieta.”