Speaking at a town hall on immigration with television host José Díaz-Balart Wednesday night, President Barack Obama told a crowd of nearly 300 people at Florida International University that he would fight to reinstate his executive action on immigration “as aggressive[ly] as we can.” Obama said that his administration expected to win its appeal on a decision made by a federal judge in Texas, who temporarily halted immigration programs that would confer work authorization and deportation relief to upwards of five million undocumented immigrants.
The town hall offered the president the opportunity to take a few digs at the Republican party, which up until now has resisted passing a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill void of attached riders that seek to get rid of the president’s executive actions. But it also gave the president the opportunity to call out eligible voters to turn out for elections, predicting that immigration could help shape future politics.
Here are some key highlights from his town hall:
The only people the Republican party should blame for Obama taking executive actions on immigration relief are themselves.
Members of the Senate passed a bipartisan bill, overwhelmingly. But the House Republicans blocked it. They refused to even allow it to get on the floor for a vote. What I did, then, was to say I’m going to use all of the authority that I have as the chief executive of the United States, as well as Commander-in-Chief, to try to make sure that we are prioritizing our immigration system a lot smarter than we’ve been doing. And what that means is, is that instead of focusing on families, we’re going to focus on felons. We’re going to strengthen our borders, which is what people are concerned about.
There would be “consequences” when immigration officials go after non-criminal immigrants.
We are now implementing a new prioritization. There are going to be some jurisdictions, and there may be individual ICE officials or Border Patrol who aren’t paying attention to our new directives. But they’re going to be answerable to the head of the Department of Homeland Security, because he’s been very clear about what our priorities should be.
The bottom line is, is that if somebody is working for ICE and there is a policy and they don’t follow the policy, there are going to be consequences to it.
In the long run, immigration reform will be inevitable because of changing demographics, particularly if young people turn out to vote.
One of the things I’ve learned in this position is that as the only office in which you’re the President of all the people, not just some, you have to be thinking not just in terms of short-term politics, you have to be thinking about what’s good for the country over the long term. Now, over the long term, this is going to get solved, because at some point there’s going to be a President Rodriguez, or there’s going to be a President Chin. … The country is a nation of immigrants, and ultimately, it will reflect who we are, and its politics will reflect who we are. And that’s not something to be afraid of. That’s something to welcome. Because that’s always been how we stay dynamic and stay cutting-edge, and have energy and we’re youthful. […]
[…] Two-thirds of the people who have the right to vote — because of the struggles of previous generations, had the right to vote — stayed home. I’m willing to bet that there are young people who have family members who are at risk of the existing immigration system who still didn’t vote. … I think, to everybody — not just to the immigrant community, but the country as a whole — why are you staying at home? Why are you not participating? … Our Congress would be completely different. We would have already passed comprehensive immigration reform.