Obama: Immigration reform requires changing the law | Fox News Latino.

Washington –  President Barack Obama said that while he can lessen some of the injustices in the current U.S. immigration system, real progress requires changing the law.

His obligation as president is to enforce the existing law, Obama said in a White House roundtable with correspondents from Efe and other Spanish-language media outlets.

Recent changes in deportation policy that prioritize expelling undocumented immigrants who committed crimes are not sufficient, according to the president, who said the problem cannot be resolved through “administrative” measures.

Amending the policy on deportations will not achieve the path to citizenship for undocumented migrants “that I believe must be part of the solution,” he told the journalists.

Obama said his administration will continue to press for comprehensive immigration reform, one of his 2008 campaign promises.

His failure so far to deliver on that promise is one of the factors that have sparked a drastic drop in support for the Democratic president among Hispanic voters, which according to the latest surveys stands at 48 percent, compared with 67 percent in 2008.

The president, however, told the media roundtable that Latino voters will not punish him in 2012 for his not being able to persuade Republicans in Congress to do the right thing on immigration.

Turning to the economy, Obama said the jobs bill he sent to Congress on Monday will have an “enormous impact” on the Hispanic community.

Part of the program, $15 billion, will go to investment in infrastructure, something that will benefit Latino workers with their strong presence in construction.

And the more than 1 million Hispanics without jobs could see their unemployment benefits prolonged, the president said.

Obama believes that the measure has the right mix of tax cuts and investment to provide an immediate stimulus to the economy, in which joblessness is around 9.1 percent.

One of the groups hit hardest by the recession are young Hispanics, with an unemployment rate of 19.3 percent.

To try and reduce that percentage, the White House will help the states create summer job programs for low-income Latino youths in 2012.

The president also discussed a demand from Congress that his administration hand over all records relating to the possible involvement of three former and current White House staff members with the botched “Fast and Furious” gun-trafficking sting.

The White House Office of Legal Counsel is reviewing the congressional request, Obama said.

He said he did not learn about Fast and Furious until the operation went badly wrong and that White House officials were told only that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was planning an operation aimed at reducing the smuggling of guns to Mexico, where more than 40,000 have died in drug-related violence.

The controversial 2009-2010 undercover operation saw ATF agents allow some 2,000 weapons purchased by straw buyers at U.S. gun shops to be smuggled into Mexico.

The idea was to trace them to powerful drug traffickers in Mexico, but once Fast and Furious got underway ATF agents realized they had no dependable way to keep track of the guns, which eventually began appearing at crime scenes on both sides of the border.

The operation has caused tension between the United States and Mexico and is the object of separate investigations by the Justice Department and Congress.

Obama said that the operation does not represent the policy of the administration and stressed his interest in collaborating as closely as possible with Mexico to deal with the scourge of drug trafficking.

A compassionate and sensible step on immigration – KansasCity.com.

The following editorial appeared in the Sacramento Bee on Monday, Aug. 22:

It’s not amnesty, back-door or otherwise. It’s just a little more sanity in our broken immigration system.

The Obama administration has announced that it will suspend deportation proceedings against thousands of illegal immigrants who aren’t a danger to public safety, including those who came to America as young children and have graduated from high school and gone on to college or into the military.

Other “low-priority” cases likely to benefit under the new policy are veterans and spouses of veterans, caregivers for a seriously ill relative or for a person with a mental or physical disability and those with family members who are citizens.

It only makes sense to target limited manpower and resources to deporting those who are violent criminals and drug smugglers, or who pose a national security threat.

This is not a blanket policy; immigration officials will review, case by case, nearly 300,000 people now in the deportation pipeline to distinguish those who may qualify for relief from those who should be expelled as soon as possible. It also doesn’t automatically grant citizenship, though many could eventually apply for legal status.

Predictably, zealous activists against illegal immigration, along with elected officials in their thrall, are railing against this change. They are still not facing the reality that if they got their way, we would have to figure out how to find and deport more than 10 million people.

With this new policy, President Barack Obama is doing administratively much of what Congress hasn’t had the courage and common sense to do legislatively by passing the DREAM Act, a bill to give relief to college students who are illegal immigrants.

“Young people who arrived here at an early age and either serve in the military or are in good academic standing should not be removed from the country and separated from their families,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who urged Obama to make the change, said in a statement. “Instead, they should be allowed to reach their full potential as productive American citizens.” She has introduced 14 private bills in the past two sessions of Congress to block deportations of such students their only recourse until now.

This new policy is a necessary step that upholds our tradition as an immigrant nation, but it is not a long-term solution. We still have to get serious about comprehensive reform to create a system that is fair and sensible.

Obama: Immigration reform ‘cannot pass without Republican votes’ – The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency.

President Obama today called for a “practical, common sense” immigration system that will help the U.S. economy and maintain America’s immigrant tradition — and he put the pressure on Republicans to get it through Congress.

“Reform that brings accountability to our immigration system cannot pass without Republican votes,” Obama said in his first major immigration speech as president . “That is the political and mathematical reality.”

Obama said his administration has already taken record-setting actions to strengthen the border, and he urged Congress to approve “a pathway to legal status” for the 11 million or so illegal immigrants who are already in the United States.

Immigration has become “a source of fresh contention” in recent days because of the new Arizona law that gives police greater authority to question people’s citizenship, Obama said. His administration is expected to file a lawsuit against Arizona, but the president did not discuss potential legal action.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the first step on the immigration issue should be “to secure the borders,” and that Obama’s pathway to citizenship amounts to “amnesty” for lawbreakers.

“The President can make progress on this issue, but it will take more than a speech,” the top Senate Republican said. “If he would take amnesty off the table and make a real commitment to border and interior security, he will find strong bipartisan support.”

Speaking to lawmakers, academics, and community leaders gathered at American University, Obama touted his plan by stressing the immeasurable contributions that immigrants have made to the United States, and the frequent discrimination they faced throughout history. “Immigrants have always helped to build and defend this country,” Obama said.

The chances for congressional passage don’t appear great. Like McConnell, congressional Republicans and some Democrats said the government should focus on better law enforcement better moving on to citizenship issues or guest worker programs. In the meantime, lawmakers who are already grappling with new Wall Street regulations and an energy bill must also deal with congressional elections only four months from tomorrow.

Obama said political posturing on an emotional issue has delayed congressional action in years and month past. “Into this breach,” he said, “states like Arizona have decided to take matters into their own hands.”

Arizona’s crackdown is understandable but “ill-conceived,” Obama said, arguing that an immigration system requires a national approach rather than a “patchwork” of state laws that puts too much of a burden on local law enforcement.

“These laws also have the potential of violating the rights of innocent American citizens and legal residents,” Obama said, “making them subject to possible stops or questioning because of what they look like or how they sound.”

McConnell, the Senate GOP leader, criticized Obama for his stand on the Arizona law, saying that “attacks on states filling the breach created by the failure of the federal government won’t secure the border, grow jobs or create solutions for what we all agree is a broken immigration system.”

At points in his speech, Obama criticized both sides of the immigration debate.

Some rights groups all but encourage illegal immigration, Obama said, though at least 11 million people are in fact breaking the law by not going through the citizenship process, and they should be held accountable.

As for critics of “amnesty,” Obama said it’s simply impossible to deport 11 million people. Doing so would disrupt communities and break up families, he added, as many undocumented immigrants have children who are U.S. citizens because they were born here.

The president said he has already taken major steps to better protect the border, proclaiming — twice — that “we have more boots on the ground near the southwest border than at any time in our history.”

As for his pathway to citizenship plan, Obama said it will help create “a younger workforce and a faster growing economy than many of our competitors,” Obama said. “And in an increasingly interconnected world, the diversity of our country is a powerful advantage in global competition.”

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR): FAIR Legislative Update February 1, 2010.

President Obama disappointed many amnesty advocates last week with only a passing mention of immigration during his State of the Union speech. This reference, consisting of just 38 words near the end of the more than hour-long speech, was noticeably ambiguous:  “And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system to secure our borders and enforce our laws and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation.”  (CNN, January 29, 2010).  Absent was any mention of “comprehensive” immigration reform, a path to citizenship, or even legalization.  This passing reference to immigration reform has amnesty proponents questioning whether President Obama truly intends to push for such legislation as part of the agenda he laid out for his second year.

Click here to read more.

Amnesty not a solution | NewsOK.com.

POINT OF VIEW: Social Security, Medicare funding woes

Immigration — legal and illegal — works against repairing Social Security and Medicare.

Following the playbook of Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, proponents of amnesty for illegal aliens are not letting any serious crisis go to waste.

Medicare and Social Security trustees recently announced the trust funds will be insolvent sooner than previously reported — by 2017 and 2037, respectively. In response, several proponents for illegal alien amnesty began beating the drum that amnesty was the solution for insolvency. In fact, amnesty would ultimately compound the problems.

Social Security and Medicare are structured like giant Ponzi schemes where today’s workers support today’s retirees.

In 1950, there were 16 workers paying taxes into the Social Security and Medicare systems for every retiree; in 2005, there were only three workers for every retiree. Instead of correcting the pyramid scheme nature of these programs, advocates of illegal immigrants as a cure are hoping we will just “kick the can” down the road. Ultimately this approach will fail for the same reason all pyramid schemes collapse. It is mathematically impossible for enough workers to enter the system to support retirees.

In truth, the only way to permanently fix Social Security and Medicare is to emphasize programs that would reduce U.S. population and encourage higher skill levels of U.S. citizens. In turn, through the dynamics of supply and demand, higher incomes would be generated. Programs could then be put in place to encourage additional savings to supplement lower payments under Social Security.

Alan Greenspan, a co-creator of the housing, asset and credit bubbles, indicated in 2009 that increasing immigration “would lower wage premiums of skilled over lesser skilled” workers. In other words, increasing immigration would decrease the income of a large part of the working class — Americans Greenspan calls the “privileged elite whose incomes are being supported at noncompetitively high rates by immigration quotas.”

An immigration advocate, Greenspan seems to believe the Social Security and Medicare funding problems can be repaired by lowering the average worker’s compensation.

A Heritage Foundation report concluded that taxpayers would be on the hook for more than $2.6 trillion for net retirement costs if amnesty were granted to 10 million adult illegal immigrants. (The actual number under an amnesty might be closer to 20 million per studies by Californians for Population Stabilization.)

With about 16 percent of American citizens either unemployed or working part time but looking for full-time positions, legalizing illegal aliens would put substantial additional burden on the various agencies and programs that are attempting to provide benefits to unemployed Americans.

Amnesty for illegal aliens and increased legal immigration would not solve Social Security and Medicare funding problems, but instead would result in lower wages, and strained agencies and programs that are attempting to provide for unemployed American workers. As well, Social Security and Medicare would have significant unfunded liabilities potentially greater than $2.6 trillion dollars.

Legalizing illegal aliens and increasing legal immigration clearly are ill-conceived ideas.

Fotopoulos is a senior writing fellow with Californians for Population Stabilization (capsweb.org).

Amnesty for illegal aliens and increased legal immigration would not solve Social Security and Medicare funding problems, but instead would result in lower wages.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive – Obama set to hold twice-delayed immigration meeting « – Blogs from CNN.com.

President Obama is scheduled to host a variety of Democratic and Republican party leaders at the White House today.  The goal is to start the conversation of how a possible immigration reform bill might look.  Obama has reiterated that he wants “comprehensive immigration reform that paves the way for citizenship for millions of undocumented workers.”

This is just a beginning, but the with nation still under seige by the continuing economic crisis, it sounds like any immigration bill will be a tough sell in the current political climate.

What do you think?