White House arrest of Rep. Gutierrez a wakeup call for Obama on immigration reform
By: Patrick Roberts | Published Thursday, June 17, 2010, 6:57 PM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 9:39 PM
The hundreds of thousands who took to the streets of
America this weekend calling for immigration reform are ensuring that this issue will not go away.
But perhaps it was the arrest of
Congressman Luis Gutierrez of
Chicago outside the
White House that will impact
President Obama the most.
Gutierrez is an old ally from the Chicago era and the two men, both political outsiders at key points in their lives, have an awful lot in common.
Gutierrez stayed on in Congress because Obama was elected and he was given a firm promise that immigration reform would be top of the new president's agenda.
Since then Gutierrez has been bitterly disappointed in his old friend.
He has warned Obama that the Hispanic congressional caucus is no longer a solid vote on many key issues unless immigration is addressed.
But Obama has not listened.
Then at the weekend, Gutierrez uppsd the ante, allowing himself to get arrested outside the house where his old friend now resides and shapes all policy.
Gutierrez's symbolic act is also a final signal to Obama that he needs to get real about immigration reform and stop trying to shrink his responsibilites.
There is no question that a new vista has opened, that the new
Arizona law has propelled reform back onto the front page and front line.
Obama needs to grasp the moment and shape a compromise between two bitterly opposed sides.
That is what great leaders do.
Great leaders also take the ultimate step, like
Martin Luther King in getting arrested, like Gutierrez did to drawn attention to the horrific reality that a lack of federal action is causing on this issue.
Gutierrez was issuing a call to action,a clarion call that Obama should ignore at his peril.
Are you listening Mr. President?
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.IrishAndProud | May 11, 2010, 06:30 PM EDT
And further, rimomemte...I'm starting to wonder if YOU are 'nothing' but an illegal alien, yourself.
IrishAndProud | May 11, 2010, 06:28 PM EDT
(continued)... The very word 'racist!' is your substitute -- your 'crutch' -- in leau of thought, itself. I've been giving nothing BUT solutions with nearly every single post I've made: enforce our laws and borders, which the American people back by enormous margins. Comprende, amigo?
IrishAndProud | May 11, 2010, 06:26 PM EDT
Bullsh-t, rimomente. You're an arrogant, pro-illegal LIAR (who, being a so-called 'progressive,' probably DETESTS the Jews...so look who's talking about 'racism'). Talk about 'no solutions'...it's jokers like YOU who cry 'racism' at every single thing in existence that YOU don't agree with, because you cannot come back at any of it with anything even remotely resembling substance or intelligence.
ritmomente | May 07, 2010, 04:23 PM EDT
DennisQ, IrishandHypocrite is nothing but a racist. Another angry fool with no solution to this crisis....just more criticism showing his contempt for anyone including those that look like him.
DennisQ | May 06, 2010, 05:51 PM EDT
You're saying that we can't add more buyers and sellers to a given market because there isn't enough money. That's economic nonsense. There's no theoretic limit and no practical limit to the number of traders of goods and services. Your hostility to immigrants isn't based on economics; it's based on racism.
IrishAndProud | May 05, 2010, 09:58 PM EDT
Dennis, I didn't say their INTENT is always to show contempt for our borders, etc (though I've no doubt that with a good number, it is)...I said that be being here, they DO...whether it's their intent or not. And I don't doubt that they're looking for work and to make a living. And...your point? Are we to just allow them to enter freely and overrun the country and our VERY LIMITED FINANCES? We CANNOT do that, Dennis. No nation on earth can just do stuff of that sort.
Monsoonman | May 05, 2010, 09:14 AM EDT
"The present system of making everybody illegal"??????? Head hurt!
DennisQ | May 05, 2010, 05:19 AM EDT
No, they're not here to show contempt for anything. They're here to find work. Maybe the sticking point is that you believe they have the choice to stay at home where they can't make a living. They don't.
IrishAndProud | May 04, 2010, 11:44 PM EDT
How can catching and deporting aliens who by their very presence show contempt for our borders, language and culture...damage our borders, language and culture?
DennisQ | May 04, 2010, 11:03 PM EDT
Nobody is talking about ending regulations entirely, but let's have regulations that actually do that. The present system of making everybody illegal isn't going to work . . . and it doesn't. It's like a traffic light that never turns green. Such laws are worse than useless, and they promote disrespect for the very things we're looking to preserve - our language, our culture, our borders - the very things that you acknowledge are being damaged.
rcrdskpr@aol.com | May 04, 2010, 09:00 PM EDT
i believe dennisq suffers from cranial-rectal inversion
IrishAndProud | May 04, 2010, 08:50 PM EDT
Yeah, Dennis...let's just throw open our borders and get overrun with everyone from everywhere. Borders, language, culture...who needs 'em, right? (And I thought doing nothing about illegals who violate our borders promoted 'disrespect for law'...)
DennisQ | May 04, 2010, 07:52 PM EDT
Free enterprise means allowing labor to cross national borders the same way corporations do. Shouldn't sellers of labor be on the same footing as sellers of products? Restrictive immigration policies are a form of tariff, advantaging one group of sellers over another. It's not really efficient, and that's not the worst of it. Arbitrary tariffs promote bootlegging, which in turn promotes disrespect for law. We need to address problems at their source, not at their symptoms.
IrishAndProud | May 04, 2010, 04:47 PM EDT
Additionally...if anything even the path to LEGAL citizenship is too lenient. This Paki would-be bomber in Times Square had his green card, legal papers and everything else...and yet look what happened. The screening process is severely wanting, to say the least. And if THIS could happen, my gosh...who's coming across the border with the ILLEGALS?
IrishAndProud | May 04, 2010, 03:25 PM EDT
Dennis, you're cutting and pasting. You've used that opening line ("Political power in America has shifted from an older, fearful generation to a younger, more confident generation") in at least two different posts, now. Illegal aliens don't get us out of a recession, Dennis (nice with the purely emotional 'good-hearted' crap, too); FREE ENTERPRISE does that. And Obama and his ilk are its enemy.
DennisQ | May 04, 2010, 01:55 PM EDT
Political power in America has shifted from an older, fearful generation to a younger, more confident generation. This "confident" generation is more characteristically American than the one it replaces. Americans are not a fearful people. We won't get out of a recession by bailing out banks, but by welcoming good hearted workers from other countries.
merryman39 | May 04, 2010, 12:41 PM EDT
Are the businesses and individuals who are hiring illegals, all part of the "lunatic lefty fringe" group protesting in the streets--I doubt it. They are the enablers, not the idiots protesting in the streets. The U.S. is full of a lot of hypocrites who like cheap lettuce and low construction costs.
knowthyself | May 04, 2010, 12:38 AM EDT
Whats wrong with people don't they know what the word illegal means ? if your in this country without papers or a up to date visa /Green Card your a criminal. and should be arrested and deported . we need to Enforce the Law in all states.I want to see a National Identification card with a Picture & Finger Prints on the cards Issued .
Monsoonman | May 03, 2010, 08:26 PM EDT
You need to look at the organization who is behind the pro illegal alien/amnesty push that is getting front page news. Two on the board of directors funding millions of dollars for protests and ads are Kofi Annan and the family of the New York Times...No wonder we get such slanted news.
beachline | May 03, 2010, 08:05 PM EDT
Hooray for the Arizona Governor and legislature for doing the FEDS job. None of this would have occured if the government had not reduced funding and manpower for the Border Patrol. If the illegal immigrants can gather enough cash to pay a coyote to bring them across then they should have used that money to try to change things in their own countries. Mexicans are getting a bad rap--many other nationalities are also crossing illegally.
beachline | May 03, 2010, 07:52 PM EDT
OK, I will try again.! All of you bleeding hearts who oppose the Arizona law--get yourselves down to the border and intercept the drug runners, and take the bullets they will certainly shoot at you.
IrishAndProud | May 03, 2010, 07:35 PM EDT
Also, Dandyglow (and others) keep talking about 'Nazi politics,' or words to that effect, when talking about those who oppose illegal entry. Seems to me ALL the violence thus far has come from the OTHER side...the murder of the AZ rancher by an illegal, the beating up of those who support Arizona in San Fran, the shooting of that Arizona sherriff's deputy, vandalism of state government property, etc...not to mention all the crime from illegals which helped lead to this law.
irishwxman | May 03, 2010, 06:35 PM EDT
hundreds of thousands may have taken to the streets, but according to the latest polls, the majority of American people agree with the new law in AZ. Nobody here wants amnesty except the lunatic lefty fringe groups. This entire debate has become ridiculous. If you are illegal, get out! If you are legal, produce papers, and welcome to the U.S.! Simple as that!
SouthSideIrish | May 03, 2010, 04:28 PM EDT
How ironic. Little Louie is lauded on this web site the SAME day he is outed by the Chicago Sun Times for (i) setting his daughter up for an $85,000 profit on a "non-for'profit" condo deal and (ii) living with the same daughter in her new place OUTSIDE the boundaries of his distict. Congrats Louie...
FastEddy | May 03, 2010, 03:50 PM EDT
" But Obama has not listened. ..." LOL I'm shocked! ... Shocked!! ...
IrishAndProud | May 03, 2010, 02:08 PM EDT
Dandyglow wrote: "Where would we Irish Americans be if the Arizona law was in place when our people came over? It's a little too close to Nazi tactics for my taste. Our President will respond, with Constitutional insight and wisdom." *** I'll tell you where we'd be, Dandyglow, if that AZ law was already in place: right here. It only affects illegals. As for Obama's response, yeah...I've no doubt he'll sick his iron-jackboot government on the American majority for daring to do this.
rpmschevy | May 03, 2010, 01:57 PM EDT
Absolutely asinine to equate Gutierrez and his criminal friends intent with that of Martin Luther King. MLK was about equality of Americans. Even though he, as we all do, love thy neighbor, he also would have been against illegal immigration. Now if the Feds were processing people in a unequal way, yes he would have spoken out, but these people are here illegally. Do you have any concept of that?
IrishAndProud | May 03, 2010, 01:57 PM EDT
We as Irish must NOT back the illegals. There was a time in the United States when we got bad treatment, but that was chiefly a RELIGIOUS beef, not about our legal status. The Irish immigrants of yesteryear have NOTHING in common with the ILLEGALS of today, and it has nothing to do with ethnicity.
mhichil | May 03, 2010, 01:33 PM EDT
some things never change, Los Patricios
user905596 | May 03, 2010, 01:22 PM EDT
We as Irish must back the illegals. There was a time in the United States when we got the same treatment and on a much lower level still do. We must be tolerant of all ethnicities.
TraveLynn | May 03, 2010, 01:21 PM EDT
Mr Roberts, unless you live next to the border, had a family member raped, kidnapped or brutally murdered by an illegal, your opinion means nothing. AZ is doing nothing but upholdIng the law of the USA and trying to protect their lawful citizens. Why don't you invite the illegals to move to Ireland then if they are such a benefit.
KMcSinger | May 03, 2010, 12:02 PM EDT
People seem to think that people have a choice about being here legally or illegally. LThey say, why don't they go through the proper channels like law abiding citizens. Often it's because that option isn't open to them. For instance if you're Irish it's almost impossible to get a visa these days, whereas they're letting thousands of Somalians in every year. Shouldn't it be a completely fair lottery?
McNamara31 | May 03, 2010, 11:54 AM EDT
Dandyglow So well said. I'm with you.
Scrivner | May 03, 2010, 11:36 AM EDT
Little Louie is at it again! Here in Chicago he is considered a bit of a joke--preferring to protest in Puerto Rico rather than help those in his district to adapt to 21st century economy, preferring to build barriers to integration in order to keep his political power. He never met a TV camera that didn't arouse his you-know-what!
Monsoonman | May 03, 2010, 09:50 AM EDT
Why You Can't Have an Intelligent Discussion with a Progressive Leftist, in a nutshell: The ideas of right and wrong (and indeed, facts and logic) are meaningless to progressive leftists, rather, all argument is a matter of race, class, sex, and sexual orientation; and must be decided in favor of whatever group has been most oppressed by rich white males.
mollymguire | May 03, 2010, 09:21 AM EDT
ARE YOU LISTENING America? Border states are sick of bleeding to death because blood sucking criminals, illegal aliens, are killing their state! I'm supporting the ballocks it takes to stand up to criminals. I'll be vacationing the border states with the guts to keep themselves from going under.
Dandyglow | May 03, 2010, 09:20 AM EDT
Complex issues such as immigration require complex and thoughtful responses. Where would we Irish Americans be if the Arizona law was in place when our people came over? It's a little too close to Nazi tactics for my taste. Our President will respond, with Constitutional insight and wisdom .
colburn | May 03, 2010, 09:10 AM EDT
Obviously O'Dowd was looking over your shoulder when you "scribbled" this piece.
Tony Barry | May 03, 2010, 08:10 AM EDT
Where have you been Mr. Roberts? The voluntary arrest of "Little LOUIE" outside the White House means absolutely nothing to the millions of law abiding LEGAL residents of this great country. Both YOU and NIALL should get off your AMNESTY train.
sherryovermier | May 02, 2010, 11:25 PM EDT
Well said IrishAndProud!!
IrishAndProud | May 02, 2010, 10:50 PM EDT
Uh, Robert...the 'hundreds of thousands' of illegals who marched this weekend (demanding citizenship in return for their law-breaking) was NOT what assured this issue is 'not going away.' That has ALREADY been assured by the MAJORITY MILLIONS of LEGAL AMERICANS, who back Arizona's new law by 70%. What a narrow little world you live in, Robert. The illegals' presence this weekend was miniscule, and will only backfire on them, as it always does.