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Obama held at the White House a very sharp discourse aimed at the House Republicans. More than 40.000 children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras tried to cross the border illegally this year alone. Obama stated on Monday that it is the time for him to take executive action on immigration reform, after he waited one year for the House Republicans to pass comprehensive immigration legislation.
“The failure of House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, is bad for our economy, is bad for our future. America cannot wait forever for them to act.” Obama declared.
How Obama will take executive action on immigration reform
Obama asked for a list of recommended actions that he can take unilaterally until the end of the summer from both DHS secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney general Eric Holder. To end the humanitarian crisis, Obama asked for $2 billion in order to address issues such as hosting facilities for the migrant children. Many federal departments are currently insufficiently addressing the problem. Even so, the Department of Health and Human Services is searching for available places all over the country to host the children.
Both parties showed support for the bill in the Senate last year already and Obama declared he has waited enough. “There are enough Republicans and Democrats in the House to pass an immigration bill today, I would sign it into law today, and Washington would solve a problem in a bipartisan way,” Obama declared, “But for more than a year, Republicans in the House of Representatives have refused to allow an up-or-down vote on that Senate bill or any legislation to fix our broken immigration system.”
Boehner stated shortly after Obama’s speech that “In our conversation last week, I told the president what I have been telling him for months now: The American people and their elected officials don’t trust him to enforce the law as written”. The Republicans are concerned that the message a more laissez-faire immigration approach might encourage the illegal migration process.
The topic of migration is not the first battlefield between Boehner and Obama. They have fought over the issues of health care, gun control and government spending and rarely achieved compromise. It is an important background of why Obama decided to take executive action on immigration reform. Support for immigration reform has been wide, ranging from religious organizations and business groups and even almost 60 percent of the Americans, according to a poll ordered by ABC / Washington Post.
