The head of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s pro-amnesty FWD.us lobbying group (Todd Schulte) and the president of La Raza (Janet Murguia) were among those who met with President Barack Obama and other amnesty advocates at the White House on Wednesday.
Obama met with DREAMers and some of the most prominent leaders of left-wing and pro-amnesty organizations in a closed-door meeting to brief them on what the administration plans to regarding its executive amnesty program after a federal judge issued an injunction against Obama’s executive amnesty last week.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) on Wednesday revealed that the White House is deciding whether it has the legal authority to start implementing Obama’s executive amnesty in the 24 states that did not join the lawsuit against it. Obama, according to the White House, “highlighted that despite the Texas district court’s ruling, the Administration will continue to make progress on many components of the executive actions and is confident we will ultimately be able to implement the deferred action policies.”
The Obama administration has asked that judge for a stay and will file a more formal appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In the meantime, the Obama administration has decided to comply with the injunction and not accept applications for the expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) part of Obama’s executive amnesty, which was scheduled to begin last week. The temporary amnesty program for the illegal immigrant parents of U.S. citizens is scheduled to go into effect in three months.
After U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen issued his injunction, FWD.us, which has spent millions trying to secure massive increases in guest-worker visas in a comprehensive amnesty bill that would lower the wages of American workers, vowed that it won’t give up fighting for Obama’s executive amnesty. Murguia declared that there would be an increase in activism among Latinos, who she said will vote for those who stood against “our community” in the executive amnesty debate.
After meeting with Obama, the amnesty amnesty advocates reportedly said that President Obama assured them that the “law is on our side.”
Obama met with the activists before his immigration town hall at Florida International University in Miami with MSNBC and Telemundo.
The White House released the full list of participants:
· Deepak Bhargava, Center for Community Change
· Gregory Cendana, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
· Marielena Hincapie, National Immigration Law Center
· Maria Teresa Kumar, Voto Latino
· Eliseo Medina, Fast for Families
· Benjamin Monterroso, Mi Familia Vota
· Janet Murguía, NCLR
· Ali Noorani, National Immigration Forum
· Erin Oshiro, Immigration and Immigrant Rights Program for Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC)
· Lorella Praeli, United We Dream
· Arturo Rodriguez, United Farm Workers of America
· Simon Rosenberg, New Democrat Network
· Rocio Sáenz, SEIU
· Todd Schulte, FWD.us
· Hector Sanchez, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and the Chair of National Hispanic Leadership Agenda
· Frank Sharry, America’s Voice
· Neera Tanden, Center for American Progress
Immigration activists emerge from meeting with Pres Obama. They say he assured them "the law is on our side" on his deportation policy.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 25, 2015
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