PRESIDENT Barack Obama expressed his frustration on Monday, June 8 about the continued broken immigration system in the United States, and how federal court rulings have stalled his executive orders, vowing to keep pushing to fix the system.
Speaking to reporters at the G7 summit in Krün, Germany with world leaders, Obama said that he is confident in immigration reform for new Americans, and that he expects it will be a major topic in the 2016 presidential race.
In February, a district court judge in Texas blocked key provisions of Obama’s executive action on immigration that would have granted nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants relief from deportation, expanding programs such as his 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
“Obviously I’m frustrated,” the President said at the conference. “We are being as aggressive as we can legally to, first and foremost, appeal that ruling, and then to implement those elements of immigration and executive actions that were not challenged in court.”
“One of the key provisions for me was being able to get folks undocumented to…have a legal status. That requires an entire administrative apparatus and us getting them to apply,” he continued.
Expressing his determination, the President said, “The United States is a government of laws and separations of power, and even if it’s an individual district court judge who’s making this determination, we’ve got to go through the process to challenge it. And until we get clarity there, I don’t want to bring people in, have them apply and jump through a lot of hoops only to have it deferred and delayed further.”
He made a deliberate push for Congress to act, saying a move on immigration reform would “obviate the need for executive actions,” and that “conversations start back up again, particularly in the Republican Party, about the shortsighted approach that they’re taking when it comes to immigration.”
“I am absolutely convinced this is well within my authority, the Department of Homeland Security’s authority. If you look at the traditional discretion that the executive branch possess when it comes to applying immigration laws, I am convinced that what we are doing is lawful.”
The White House has since appealed the Texas district court’s decision, and awaits a federal ruling in the coming months.
“The majority of the American people I think still want to see this happen…And so, we will continue to push as hard as we can on all fronts to fix a broken immigration system,” Obama said.
(LA Midweek June 10 – 12, 2015 Sec. A pg.1)
