If the Irish are serious about immigration reform, we must re-elect Barack Obama
Posted on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at 09:55 AM
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| Obama is the candidate to deliver comprehensive immigration reform |
Some commentators have claimed that Barack Obama's second term agenda is vague and unspecified. Those commentators have not been paying attention.
The issue that is is of most immediate concern to the Irish will be on the table on November 6: immigration.
Obama has made it quite clear that he wants to tackle comprehensive immigration reform in his second term. If he's re-elected it will be in no small part due to the overwhelming support of Latino voters, who rightly scoff at Mitt Romney's absurd and insulting 'self-deportation' solution.
Republicans in a second Obama term will want to be careful to not present too much opposition to the presidents immigrations plans since they're weary of getting hammered in Latino precincts election after election.
The president will also be conscious of his own debts on the issue.
It should be remembered that President Obama won and signed landmark Health Care reform, a dream for a generation of presidents that he almost made look easy. I don't doubt his ability to deliver on immigration reform either.
I also do not trust Mitt Romney to pay even lip service to the issue, given the attitudes from within his own party. In any case he has made it quite clear his priorities are tax cuts for the rich, an aggressive and expansionist new foreign policy and the gutting the New Deal that was our grandparents gift to us, with help from the fanatical ideologue he has picked for Vice President.
Romney won't have the time or the inclination to tackle immigration reform. So for the Irish the choice is clear, as is the candidate: President Barack Obama.
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RthrBHistCorr | Oct 24, 2012, 10:50 PM EDT
Obama has only used immigration as a tool to win Latino votes, see sign behind him in picture. The Irish have been betrayed time and time again by Professional Imigration reformers who on one hand tell the Irish "we need comprehensive reform" but are quit to cut a deal for thier particular power base
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anglo-norman | Oct 24, 2012, 10:17 PM EDT
Obama the darling of Ireland but not America.
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jflanagan | Oct 24, 2012, 09:08 PM EDT
He promises immigration reform whenever he needs votes. Once in office, just like the last time, he will not spend the time and effort to do anything about it. Nice guy but the President never had a job he had to concentrate on or put much effort into. He doesn't have the work ethic to get much done unless he has a Democrat Congress majority to do the work for him. Go ahead and put your dreams into a man who loves to travel, golf and campaign but does little in Washington.
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olovely | Oct 24, 2012, 04:37 PM EDT
I see the Tea Party trolls are commenting now. Ignore them. That crowd have been having no end of trouble with immigrants ever since their ancestors emigrated to this country.
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flabdap | Oct 24, 2012, 03:47 PM EDT
I find it interesting that Obama is preferred in countries other than the U.S.
But people in other countries preferences are based on what other countries feel is in their best interest NOT necessarily what is in the U.S. best interest. Therefore one would expect that other countries preferences would be a weak president, a weak foreign policy, and as little influence in world policies as possible. So I can completely understand how Obama is so popular in other countries. He is bad for the U.S. and good for other countries.
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cherykie | Oct 24, 2012, 01:25 PM EDT
If this originates from Ireland,I would be glad to give you our white house occupant to have and to hold until communism doth you in. His " dream' health plan is so fraught with non-health stipulations that it almost serves as a new constitution a la king obama, but congress was told it had to pass the law so they could find out what was in the bill! 0bama's party made sure it went through due to majority. 0bama wants Latinos by the millions, not for their benefit, but for their votes. And do you really think a man who has written in his own book about his hatred of white people that he would be a blessing to the Irish? He gives our tax money to give free phones to black people and they naively believe he paid for them himself. One woman on you tube actually said she had been given 30 phones! Too many immigrants who have entered this country legally have to get in line behind the surge of illegals who may want a better life, but may just be here to get all the freebies then run home rich, and as an ex -postal employee I know how many untaxed US dollars have been going south of the border to build a nest egg on the backs of working taxpayers here in the US.
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popeye1250 | Oct 24, 2012, 11:06 AM EDT
So, "business as usual?"
"Immigration reform = letting illegal aliens remain in the country?"
Wow! What a *Courageous* stand!
Yeah, go right ahead, just ignore the 96% of Americans who want out laws enforced just because it suits your agenda.
Hey! Here's an idea,...let's just make a bunch of laws then,....just not enforce them! It's odd that people think that Obama would be more likely to do that than Romney, in'it?
Do you think that we could get Obama to suspend the laws against bank robbery? Just until Jan?
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staker42 | Oct 24, 2012, 09:03 AM EDT
What rubbish. And yes it was the Democrats under their beloved Kennedy's that screwed the Irish with immigration reform in 1965 . We need to enforce our current immigration laws and let people come this country legally and then yOu won't need immigration reform. I's about time Ireland stood on it's own two feet solve it's own problems and stop suggesting to the US what to do.
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eiriamach | Oct 24, 2012, 08:50 AM EDT
On immigration reform, on ending discrimination in women's health care, and on ending discrimination against gays and lesbians, Obama has pushed at the limits of presidential power to do what the country needs! With 55 Democrats in the Senate on Dec. 16, 2010, Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced The Dream Act. It should have passed when it got 55 votes, but that vote tally was not enough to stop the GOP filibuster. Only 3 Republicans voted for it, and 5 Dems voted against it. So it is simply false to say that Obama and the Dems have done nothing about immigration reform. The truth is that there are obstructionists in both parties, but Republicans have too much $$$ to lose (profits from cross-border workers) from reform of immigration. They will continue to oppose it. Obama's executive order was the only way to get some progress.
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Lokelani | Oct 24, 2012, 05:30 AM EDT
I think Obama has already had a guinness in an Irish pub, anglo and I'm sure he'll come again.
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olovely | Oct 23, 2012, 09:36 PM EDT
Do I have to repeat myself? Obama in August signed a directive that implemented the key provision of the Dream Act — allowing young people brought into the country without authorization as children to avoid deportation if they graduate high school or join the military. You guys need to inform yourselves before you post. Maybe crack open a newspaper now and then? In September the administration categorized gay families as being low priority for deportation, with the understanding that a ruling on DOMA will bring that discrimination to an end.
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Tom Mo | Oct 23, 2012, 09:33 PM EDT
Cahir , you are so effing wrong about this immigration problem, you should try another profession. How about handyman?,Super?, can you use a hammar?
Obama dosen't give a tinkers curse about Ireland and the Irish. Wake up for God's sake
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Byrne P | Oct 23, 2012, 07:47 PM EDT
So where is the immigration reform he promised in the last 4 years? Obama is always GOING TO DO things, all he has left to say is "I coulda, shoulda, woulda
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irishpjk | Oct 23, 2012, 07:00 PM EDT
No one can do more harm to the Irish immigration than the Kennedy's did and the Irish kept voting for them. Wake up boys.
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