Obama at Cinco de Mayo Reception: Mobilize for Amnesty

At a Cinco de Mayo reception at the White House, President Barack Obama urged amnesty advocates to mobilize during the next two months to pressure Congress to enact immigration reform.

Even though the Congressional Budget Office determined amnesty legislation would lower the wages of American workers, Obama said that he is “convinced that America’s prosperity and security depend on comprehensive, common-sense immigration reform.”

“So far, the Republicans in the House have refused to allow meaningful immigration reform to move forward at all. We know there are Republicans in the House who want to do the right thing,” Obama said, according to the White House. “I’m going to work with everybody who’s serious about strengthening our borders, modernizing our legal immigration system, keeping more families together, and getting this done. And it’s the right thing to do for our economy, for our security and our future.”

Obama then urged those in attendance to organize in their communities to pressure Republicans on immigration reform, even though those angry protests have not been working, leaving amnesty advocates frustrated and having no idea what they are even fighting for, according to a report in National Journal.

“It’s time for members of Congress and Republicans in the House to catch up with the rest of the country,” Obama said. “So I need all of you to go out there and mobilize particularly over the next two months – tell them to get on board. Get on board with business leaders and faith leaders, law enforcement, Republicans and Democrats across the country – say yes to fixing our broken immigration system.”  

Amnesty advocates have been trying to get Obama to act unilaterally to to end more deportations even though the notion that Obama is the “deporter-in-chief” has been debunked – even by his former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The Obama administration may be intent on easing even more deportations though, as Vice President Joe Biden may have inadvertently revealed this weekend when he said, “We’ll do that too,” in response to a student who shouted, “Stop deportations!” during his speech in South Florida (Miami Dade).