Religious Concerns
Undocumented Immigrants and Welfare
|
| Via Occupy Democrats |
I know, I know, the folks at FOX News would love for you to think otherwise, but there you go…
Hillary Clinton Weighs In On Immigration Reform
Thanks to POTUS for taking action on immigration in the face of inaction. Now let’s turn to permanent bipartisan reform. #ImmigrationAction— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 21, 2014
Is President Obama’s Executive Action On Immigration Unprecedented?
 |
| Click to enlarge |
National Journal explains the history of immigration reform and shows that President Obama’s executive action is nothing out of the ordinary for presidents of both parties for decades:
Advocates say the president isn’t doing as much as he is legally capable of to help unauthorized immigrants, but they acknowledge that even though his executive order isn’t everything they want, it is carefully crafted to stay consistent with past White House practices. 
That won’t stop critics from blasting Obama’s actions, but it gives him a solid rebuttal.;
More at National Journal
Republicans Bash President Obama For Doing What Reagan Did
Even before his primetime speech tonight where he will share his plans to address immigration reform, the GOP is hitting President Obama on the “lawlessness” of using executive orders to address immigration challenges in this country.
What’s laughable is how the right wing nuts are working overtime to draw a distinction between President Reagan and Bush’s executive actions on immigration and President Obama’s proposed order, saying that Obama’s authority for deferring deportation — unlike that of his predecessors — is illegitimate.
Plus, it’s been over 500 days since the US Senate passed a bipartisan immigration reform bill but the GOP-led House refuses to bring the legislation up for a vote.
Had Speaker of the House John Boehner daned to bring the bill to a vote, the country would have moved forward on this issue already.
America has made it clear we are tired of obstructionism and “do nothing” Congresses. I completely support President Obama in taking whatever lawful actions he can that make sense to help cope with the country’s immigration issues.
Check the second video below where Boehner laughably talks on “working together to fix our broken immigration system.” And yet – he has personally kept the issue from a vote in the House.
Hypocrisy at it’s worst.
President Obama Will Announce His Plans For Lawful Immigration Reform Tomorrow
President Obama will address the nation tomorrow to share his plan to address immigration reform in the US. From his remarks in the video below:
“Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately, Washington has allowed the problem to fester for far too long.
“And so what I’m going to be laying out is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as President to make the system work better, even as I continue to work with Congress to encourage them to get a bipartisan, comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem.”
(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = “//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1”; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
Post by The White House.
White House Announces Coming Executive Order On Immigration Reforms
According to the New York Times, President Obama is preparing to issue executive orders concerning immigration which could affect up to 5 million people currently living in the United States.
One key piece of the order, officials said, will allow many parents of children who are American citizens or legal residents to obtain legal work documents and no longer worry about being discovered, separated from their families and sent away.
That part of Mr. Obama’s plan alone could affect as many as 3.3 million people who have been living in the United States illegally for at least five years, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration research organization in Washington.
But the White House is also considering a stricter policy that would limit the benefits to people who have lived in the country for at least 10 years, or about 2.5 million people.
The executive order by Obama would apparently take into account immigrants with strong family ties and no criminal background, placing those folks on the low end of the priority scale.
Two items of note here:
• Any executive order issued by Obama could be reversed with the stroke of a pen by a new president in 2017.
• The US Senate passed a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform bill last year, but the GOP led House has refused to bring the legislation to a vote.
White House officials say lawyers had been working for months to ensure any action by the president would be “legally unassailable.”
President Obama has publicly stated that he will reverse his executive orders should Congress pass meaningful immigration reform legislation.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid would welcome House immigration bill
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would welcome the $659 million immigration bill currently circulating in the US House.
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is trying to round up enough votes for a pared-down border bill that spends far below the president’s request for $3.7 billion and includes policy changes to speed the deportation of illegal minors from Central America.
Reid said the policy changes would give him an opportunity to attach the comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Senate passed last year with the support of 14 Republicans.
“If they pass that, maybe it’s an opening for us to have a conference on our comprehensive immigration reform. If they’re finally sending us something on immigration, maybe we can do that,” Reid told reporters after a lunch meeting with his caucus.
“We’ve been looking for something to do a conference on. Maybe we can do it with that,” Reid said.
The current House bill would send National Guard troops to the southern border plus add funding for immigration judges to speed the processing of unaccompanied minors found crossing US borders illegally.
While the Senate passed legislation last year, Speaker Boehner has blocked any attempt to further immigration reform this year. To do so could might open the door to what could be considered a “win” by President Obama and the Democrats.
And of course, it’s more important to play politics than to get the people’s work done, don’t you know?
For the folks who like to picket abortion clinics
|
| Via Blue Nation Review |
Since they are so interested in saving innocent lives…
Large majority of Americans support immigration reform including path to citizenship
Here’s a good reason for Republicans to work with the President and Dems on immigration reform: a big majority of the country – Democrats, Independents and Republicans – support the legislation:
A consistent and solid majority of Americans — 63 percent — crossing party and religious lines favors legislation to create a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living in the United States illegally, while only 14 percent support legal residency with no option for citizenship, according a report published Monday by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute.
Sixty percent of Republicans, 57 percent of independents and 73 percent of Democrats favor a pathway to citizenship, according to the report. Majorities of Protestants, Catholics and Americans with no religious affiliation also support that plan.