Sacramento Reacts to Obama’s Amnesty

Sacramento citizens had widely disparate reactions to Barack Obama’s granting of amnesty to illegal immigrants on Thursday night. Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, who has reacted in highly critical fashion to Obama’s purported immigration moves after two of his deputies were killed by an alleged illegal immigrant, said, “This is not immigration reform. This is something the president can do to check a box and then ignore it till the next round of elections.”

Jones added, “I am disappointed in the sense that I don’t think we’re any closer to immigration reform than we were yesterday. And in fact frankly I think we’re a bit further because it divides the group.  It sends some of them further into the shadows while qualifying or validating some of them.”

Conversely, according to Fox 40, union leaders in Sacramento celebrated Obama’s action. Yvonne Walker, president of SEIU Local 1000, rejoiced, “I’m extremely proud of the president for taking this action.” She was echoed by said Lino Pedres, president of the Sacramento Central Labor Council, who enthused, “We have been fighting for so long for common sense, comprehensive immigration reform. This is not an amnesty.”

Jones had reacted to the murder of Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County Sheriff’s Detective Michael Davis Jr. by Marcelo Marquez, who had previously been deported numerous times, by releasing a video in which he said, “In the scope of today’s society, the inaction of our nationally elected officials has real consequences for the populace as a whole. Now is the time to take this conversation out of coffee houses and talk shows to an audience who has the ability to affect real change.” In a pointed criticism of Obama, Jones charged, “It is your singular failure alone why we do not have reform.”