President Barack Obama on Wednesday in Miami urged former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to intercede with Republican House Speaker John Boehner to move forward with immigration reform.
In a town hall meeting held at Florida International University by the Telemundo and MSNBC television networks, Obama tried to encourage the Hispanic immigrant community and said that he did not consider himself defeated on the matter of immigration reform and will continue to "aggressively" fight against Republican stonewalling on the issue.
During his visit to Florida, the president said he appreciates the "concern" about immigration of Jeb Bush, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016, but he immediately went on to urge him to "talk" with Boehner and other Republican lawmakers about approving a law that alleviates the immigration situation of millions of undocumented foreigners living in this country.
When asked what advice he would give to his successor in the White House, Obama recommended that potential candidates think about the long term, not the short term and what might be politically convenient.
"Over the long term, this is going to get solved because at some point there's going to be a President Rodriguez or there's going to be a President Chen," Obama said to resounding applause from the audience. "The country is a nation of immigrants, and ultimately it will reflect who we are and its politics are going to reflect who we are."
Members of the immigrant community took advantage of the town hall meeting, held in English, to express to Obama their concern about immigration reform and the future of his executive action measures on the subject, which have been temporarily paralyzed by Texas Judge Andrew Hanen, whose decision has caused great uncertainty among those affected by it.
The president attacked Judge Hanen's decision and reiterated that both the law and history are on his side when it comes to the unilateral measures he took to temporarily alleviate the situation of millions of undocumented immigrants, and he invited Republican lawmakers to approve immigration reform while the legal battle is being resolved.
The judicial ruling affected the entry into force, which was due to happen on Feb. 18, of the broadening of Deferred Action, a unilateral measure by Obama in 2012 that prevented the deportation of more than half a million "Dreamers," undocumented immigrants who came to this country as children.
Obama noted that he had spent "six years" asking Republicans to work with Democrats to approve the reform and emphasized that in mid-2013 the Senate gave the green light to a bipartisan bill on the matter, adding that for the past year-and-a-half Boehner has not brought it to a vote in the House and so he decided last November to take executive action to temporarily ease the situation of millions of immigrants. EFE
No comments:
Post a Comment