Hispanic caucus says reform unlikely now, ICE should focus on criminals.
By Gary Martin
San Antonio Express News
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
WASHINGTON — In a closed-door White House meeting Tuesday, Hispanic lawmakers urged President Barack Obama to use his authority to slow the pending deportations of illegal immigrant students.
The meeting with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is the third in as many weeks that Obama has held with supporters of immigration reform. Long refusing to use his authority, he has instead prodded Congress to pass a law addressing the problem of the 11 million people in this country illegally.
The caucus is not asking the president to administratively change the law, said its chairman, Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio. But he said the caucus urged Obama to focus the country's immigration enforcement assets on criminals, not students or workers.
“We do need to seek a legislative fix, but the reality right now is it would be very difficult with the huge majority the Republicans have in the House of Representatives,” Gonzalez said.
Over the past month, Obama has also met with Republican and Democratic mayors, including San Antonio's Julián Castro, and Hispanic celebrities such as actress Eva Longoria.
The White House meetings come as Obama gears up for re-election next year. Hispanics voted overwhelmingly for him in 2008, and the group could be an important bloc in key states in 2012.
Hispanic lawmakers and minority rights groups, however, have been critical of the president's failure to get immigration reform passed. Criticism also has been leveled against Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions to step up work site enforcement and deport illegal immigrants.
“We have a champion in the president of the United States and we want that president to work with us,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., who heads the Hispanic caucus task force on immigration.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama remains supportive of comprehensive immigration reform despite recent defeats and is working to build support for its passage.
A sweeping reform bill died in the Senate in 2007, and a Dream Act bill that would have granted protections for illegal immigrants who attend college or enlist in the military died in the Senate last year after narrow passage in the House.
Obama continues urging Congress to pass the Dream Act as well as overall reform, Carney said.
“The push will continue,” he said.
Republicans, meanwhile, have accused Obama and the Justice Department of selectively enforcing immigration laws.
The Justice Department sued Arizona over its immigration enforcement law, claiming it superseded federal law, but did not challenge a guest worker law in Utah, said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
“It seems the president's personal, political views regarding the law may have trumped the obligations of the Justice Department,” Smith said.
Republicans in the House and Senate say they will oppose any measure that would grant legal status to immigrants who are here illegally.
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