Obama says he will overhaul immigration without Congress' help
By Christi Parsons, Lisa Mascaro
June 30, 2014 - Los Angeles Times
President Obama, saying hefs convinced that House Republicans will not take
action to reform immigration laws this year, vowed Monday to use his executive
authority to gfix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own, without
Congress.h
Obama set an end-of-summer deadline for officials to give him options for
changes he can implement on his own and promised he would gadopt those
recommendations without further delay.h
Democratic lawmakers and advocates who have pushed for executive action to
reduce the number of immigrants being deported say they expect that Obama will
extend temporary legal status to a significant number of the people who would
have qualified under the reform bill that passed the Senate a year
ago.
One of the leading backers of immigration reform, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez
(D-Ill.), who has sharply criticized Obama recently, said Mondayfs statement
represented gthe president I voted for.h
gThe antidote for do-nothingism is doing something, and the president is
doing for the American people what the Republican-controlled Congress refused to
do,h Gutierrez said.
Republican officials said further executive action by Obama would merely make
existing border problems worse. GOP leaders point to the crisis in Texas, in
which thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America have arrived at the
border in recent weeks, as a reason for Congress to hold off on passing
comprehensive immigration legislation.
Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Obama sought to turn that argument
around. The gargument seems to be that because the system's broken, we shouldn't
make an effort to fix it,h Obama said. gIt makes no sense. It's not on the
level. It's just politics, plain and simple.h
He also repeated that minors who have arrived in recent months will be sent
back to their countries of origin. Administration officials have tried to convey
that message to the public in Central America, seeking to combat rumors that the
U.S. will allow children to stay if they arrive without parents.
gThe journey is unbelievably dangerous for these kids,h Obama said. gThe
children who are fortunate enough to survive it will be taken care of while they
go through the legal process, but in most cases that process will lead to them
being sent back home.h
This spring, Obama asked Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to delay
submitting a series of recommendations for changing U.S. deportation practices,
hoping that holding off would give House Republicans time to come up with a
legislative package they could support.
But according to the White House version of events, House Speaker John A.
Boehner (R-Ohio) told Obama last week that his chamber didnft plan to act this
year.
In a statement, Boehner said that he had gtold the president what I have been
telling him for months: The American people and their elected officials don't
trust him to enforce the law as written. Until that changes, it is going to be
difficult to make progress on this issue.h
gThe crisis at our southern border reminds us all of the critical importance
of fixing our broken immigration system,h Boehner said. gIt is sad and
disappointing that — faced with this challenge — President Obama won't work with
us, but is instead intent on going it alone with executive orders that can't and
won't fix these problems.h
Boehner added that Obamafs previous executive orders ghave led directly to
the humanitarian crisis.h
Republicans point to Obamafs decision in 2012 to stop deportations of some
young people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. They say that
order, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, had given families in
Central America false hope.
Administration officials deny their policies are to blame. Instead, they say
smugglers have taken advantage of a U.S. law, passed in 2008 under President
George W. Bush, that guarantees a hearing to unaccompanied children arriving
from Central America and other countries that do not directly border the
U.S.
That hearing process can often take more than a year, and it has helped give
rise to the belief among some in Central America that U.S. authorities will give
a permiso — permission to stay in the U.S. — to children who arrive at the
border.
Earlier in the day, the White House began pressing Congress to come up with
more than $2 billion in new money to manage the flood of unaccompanied children.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama said officials needed the money for
an aggressive strategy to repatriate recent border crossers as well as for a
sustained border security gsurgeh to fight smuggling networks.
In addition to the money, Obama wrote that the Department of Homeland
Security needed greater discretion in how it processed minors who arrived at the
border. That would require Congress to amend the 2008 law — a prospect that has
angered immigrant advocates.
gAmerica stands at a crossroads on immigration reform,h said Ali Noorani,
executive director of the National Immigration Forum. The administration's
proposal will be gheld up to close scrutiny,h he said.
Even before the border crisis, the complex politics of immigration had
created problems for both sides.
Democrats have spent months accusing House Republicans of holding up the
drive to change immigration laws. At the same time, the White House is trying to
insulate the president from complaints from some Latino activists that his
administration is enforcing the existing law too harshly.
In his remarks, Obama tried to turn the focus back on Republicans, saying
that they were to blame for refusing to bring immigration reform to the House
floor for an up-or-down vote. By most counts, enough Democrats and Republicans
in the House favor the bill that cleared the Senate last year to pass it if it
were called for a vote. But because the bill badly splits Republicans in the
House, Boehner has not brought it or any other immigration measure to the
floor.
gI held off on pressuring them for a long time to give Speaker Boehner the
space he needed to get his fellow Republicans on board,h Obama said. But gthe
failure of House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, it's
bad for our economy and it's bad for our future.h
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which like many business groups has backed the
Senate bill, issued a statement saying it was gdeeply disappointed by our
elected leadersf inability to achieve meaningful immigration reform.h
gWithout reform, our broken immigration system continues to harm our economy,
cost jobs, and undermine Americafs global competitiveness,h Chamber President
Thomas J. Donohue said.
Reaction from Congress fell quickly along the partisan divide.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) praised Obama for trying to
gprotect families from being torn aparth because gBoehner has made it absolutely
clear that he wonft lift a finger to fix our broken immigration
system.h
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican in the chamber and an
opponent of the bipartisan Senate bill, said, gItfs painfully clear that the
presidentfs previous eadministrativef or executive actions on immigration
resulted in the current humanitarian crisis.h
Further executive action would glead to another surge of illegal immigration
and put more lives in danger,h he said.
christi.parsons@latimes.com
lisa.mascaro@latimes.com