Posted on 04/20/2010 8:21:35 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
A congressman from the president’s home state is threatening that he will urge Latino voters to stay home this November if the Democratic Party does not make a concerted effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Ill.) is arguably President Barack Obama’s biggest Democratic critic in Congress. And he’s not fond of Obama’s top advisers at the White House, either.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) member has strongly criticized the administration’s policy on deportation and questioned its commitment to far-reaching reform.
Some Democrats have felt little urgency in pursuing the controversial issue, partly because they see no risk that Hispanic voters will bolt the party for the GOP. But Gutierrez says they are missing the real political consequence of inaction.
“We can stay home,” Gutierrez said in an interview with The Hill. “We can say, ‘You know what? There is a third option: We can refuse to participate.’ ”
For Gutierrez, a former cab driver first elected to represent Chicago in 1992, the shift from close Obama ally to ornery critic has been stark. The lawmaker was one of the former Illinois senator’s earliest campaign supporters, and — as Gutierrez is quick to note — he stuck by Obama even as many Hispanic leaders rallied around Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.
When Gutierrez talks about his old Chicago neighbor, he speaks of “anger, disillusionment, dissatisfaction” and “betrayal.” He says Obama has failed to keep his campaign commitment to immigration reform, and he decries what he calls an “enforcement-only” policy in which the administration has deported more undocumented immigrants than in the final year of the George W. Bush administration.
Gutierrez says Latinos have lost patience with Obama, and he predicts an “escalation” of activism aimed at forcing immigration reform to the fore of the party agenda.
“We’re going to make it uncomfortable for the Democratic Party,” Gutierrez said, adding that immigration advocates would step up the pressure by drawing lessons from the movements for civil rights and women’s suffrage. “There’ll probably be civil disobedience. There will probably be a number of different actions. What we have to do is we have to break through this wall of silence, because we’re invisible.”
Gutierrez is not alone. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), a CHC member who serves in the Democratic leadership, said earlier this month that Latinos view the president with “suspicion” for failing to meet expectations.
Firing salvos is nothing new for Gutierrez, a lawmaker known for his singular and strident advocacy of the immigration cause. In 2008, he compared Border Patrol agents to the “Gestapo.” More recently, he made a high-profile threat to vote against the healthcare overhaul at its most critical stage.
Few in Washington believed he would vote no, but Gutierrez managed to wrangle a White House meeting and a public nudge from Obama in support of the comprehensive immigration blueprint being developed by Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
“Would we have liked him to have done more? Yes,” Gutierrez said, acknowledging that Obama’s statement reiterating his support for comprehensive immigration reform “wasn’t the most enthusiastic press release.”
“It’s incremental,” he said. “Before you run, you walk.”
Among his grievances with Obama is the president’s shift in rhetoric. When Obama campaigned, Gutierrez said, he used the phrase “undocumented workers.” When he addressed Congress on healthcare last September, the president referred to “illegal immigrants” in insisting that they would not be covered under the administration’s plan.
“You went from a humanizing definition of the community to a criminalizing definition of the community,” Gutierrez said.
The final straw for immigration advocates came in January, the outspoken legislator said, when Obama barely mentioned the issue in his State of the Union address.
“He said it with so little enthusiasm, and so little commitment, that they didn’t believe him,” Gutierrez said, drawing a direct line between that speech and a large rally of immigration advocates in Washington last month that happened to coincide with the final House vote on healthcare.
“If you only understood how devastating it was to our sense of hope and our sense of commitment of this president,” he said.
Gutierrez, who has not faced a serious electoral challenge since his first term, said he doesn’t lambaste the administration because he likes to.
“It’s very hard. I don’t want you to think that it’s easy,” he said. “I don’t want to pile on. It’s just he’s got to get this done.”
Gutierrez noted that Obama initially promised on the campaign trail that he would pursue immigration reform in 2009, then backtracked. And he vows he will hold the president accountable.
He said, “I meet women who are being raped by their employers. I meet children who the government has come early in the morning and taken their dads. I meet someone dying from cancer, an American citizen, who says … ‘Luis, can I die knowing that the mother of my children is going to raise [them]?’ I can’t give him that, because there’s nothing in the law.”
Despite his criticism of Obama, Gutierrez said he is more optimistic about the chances for progress on immigration.
The president transformed from “Professor Barack Obama” to “Lyndon Johnson Barack Obama” during the healthcare debate, he said.
Gutierrez noted a number of positive gestures from the White House, including an invitation for him to attend a bill-signing for a jobs measure that, he said, “I had nothing to do with.”
“I don’t think I even co-sponsored it. Why did they invite me?” Gutierrez wondered, before answering his own question. “After he signed the bill, [Obama] came up to me, he said, ‘Hey Luis, I appreciate your support. We’re going to work on comprehensive immigration reform.’ ”
Gutierrez also pointed to recent comments by Michelle Obama extolling the contributions of immigrants in the U.S. The first lady on Sunday said immigration reform was “still on the top” of the Obama agenda.
When it comes to a legislative and political path to enacting immigration reform in an election year, Gutierrez is less specific. He grudgingly accepts the consensus opinion that the legislation must start in the Senate, but he makes sure to point out that even there, immigration gets short shrift.
“Every other basic fundamental issue we start in the House,” he said.
The broader journey for a bill that will create a path to citizenship for the nation’s 12 million undocumented immigrants has been years in the making.
Gutierrez was a lead co-sponsor, along with Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), of the sweeping bill that passed the Senate in 2006 before stalling amid a conservative revolt in 2007. He nearly quit the House after the effort failed in 2007, but he changed his mind and decided to stay and pursue what has become the cause of his career.
“This has kept me in Congress,” the 56-year-old lawmaker said.
The House Democrat is not shy in blasting Obama’s closest advisers. Asserting that he is not culpable for what the administration does or does not do, Gutierrez said, “I’m not at the White House. Rahm [Emanuel] is there. [David] Axelrod’s there. And I don’t know that they’re giving him the best advice.”
Gutierrez scoffs when it is pointed out that Obama nominated the first Latina to the Supreme Court and pushed for immigration reform-friendly provisions in the 2009 children’s healthcare insurance law.
“We’re supposed to applaud because they did the right thing? Because they finally acted as Democrats? So big deal. What did they do that was so extraordinary? Oh, a Latina’s on the Supreme Court? About time!”
The White House did not comment for this article.
Gutierrez’s allies in Congress say the congressman’s outbursts have a purpose.
“There’s a difference between being an enemy and a forceful advocate,” Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) said, referring to Gutierrez’s criticism of Obama.
Part of his role as a leader on immigration, Clarke said, was to make sure there’s a spotlight on the issue.
“He’s a pretty smart pol,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), a leader on immigration in the Irish-American community. Crowley said Gutierrez’s credibility stems from his ability to build unlikely coalitions on immigration and because he is well-liked in the Democratic Caucus.
As for Obama, lawmakers are quick to note a relationship between the two men that goes back years. “Luis is very strategic and he’s very smart, and so is the president,” Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) said.
Gutierrez, Honda said, “holds no animosity. The heat is about the issue. It’s not about personalities.”
If you could get them to ‘stay home’ there would be no reason for immigration reform. They would be in Mexico mowing their own damn lawn, you asshat!
Looks like Mexico is itching to start reconquista.....they apparently ordered Gutierrez to tighten the Dem leash. The Obamatons are willing dupes of Third World governments----dutifully reciting latino agit-prop. Obama kneels in obeisance to La Raza, and amnesty supporters on Capitol Hill...... to suckup illegal votes that will hopefully climax in Nov wins.
Ohaha sent Michele Ohaha to ol' Mehico the other day, to get her marching orders from Calderone. She was sucking up bigtime.....so that Ohaha can nail illegal votes for desperate Dems. I just hope the First Lady's got what it takes.......and that she brought enough kneepads to perform multiple Mexican BJs, ole. (/snix)
Obama's treacherous plan to award US citizenship to illegals is a con game. Illegals w/ amnesty are dual citizens who swear allegiance to their home countries. THEY INTEND TO RETURN THERE----AFTER THEY DRAIN THE US TREASURY.
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WHY DO OHAHA AND THE DIMS SUPPORT AMNESTY? B/c druglords are South American Marxists. Dems figure they can spread Marxism quickly throughout the US by amnestying Marxists (NOTE: druglords are bringing drugs and more illegal voters through VZ and Cuba into the US).
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REFERENCE Over and above the millions who violate our borders, 1.5 million legal foreign workers come to the US each year, as a matter of course.
But this number isn’t high enough for Dem Cong Gutierrez and his 92 co-sponsors. Their Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill includes a provision called “recapture” that will add up all the supposedly “unused” work visas since 1992 and issue them immediately.
This is a complete fraud, as all unused work visas are rolled over to the family reunification category the next year as it is.
Gutierrez' Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill will create 100,000 visas from countries that send the most illegal immigrants every year. According to the State Department, this will mean 550,000 new foreign workers.
AND GET THIS Mexico is the staging area for Third World and other illegals preparing to violate our borders. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill rewards Mexico b/c they calculatedly promote illegal immigration.
Gutierrez' bill will make it much easier for more illegal aliens to break in. Under the Bill, to prove they have jobs and were in the country BEFORE Congress passed amnesty, illegals are allowed to use stolen ID's, fake green cards, and fraudulent SS numbers....... without fear of prosecution.
Mexico facilitates the profitable staging area for global illegals to cross the border. Contrary to Obama’s claim that CIR bill will increase border security, it does just the opposite.........
<> it guts successful enforcement measures,
<> limits raids on illegal immigrants,
<> prohibits use of troops on the border,
<> replaces E-Verify used to ensure employers hire legal American workers,
<> overturns all state and local US laws that crackdown on illegal immigration,
<> abolishes 287(g) that allows local L/E and federal authorities to apprehend criminal illegals.
Gutierrez makes Van Jones look like a patriot.
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As FReeper Tammy8 insightfully posted: "Reid and the Dims had a rally for amnesty on the very same day as the services for Rob Krentz. Has Obama made a statement about the Krentz murder? Has he made a statement about the cartel war causing issues in Ft Hancock, TX? Has Obama made a statement about the various home invasions both on and away from the border by illegals? "
Sickening. Dems could care less. Sucking up to non-citizens is more important than American lives. Illegals are another voting bloc they grab onto to save their sorry elected behinds. I agree w/ Tancredo: DHS' Napolitano should resign in the wake of Rob Krentz' murder.
Take your ball and go home Luis.
First, I'm with you. Second, though, it's "illegal aliens" and third, the Bill of Rights is ONLY for legal citizens. The only right illegals have is to go to jail and stay there.
This can best be described as: From one thug to another...
How about “go home”.
To your country of birth that is.
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Things endemic to the Third World----serfdom, slavery, ruling elites, armed street patrols, mob rule, bribery as a way of life----do not fly here.
The more rights these people get, the more they show their ignorance, and their inability to circumnavigate the mechanics of a free government. Gutierrez and his crowd better wake-up---they are going to have a problem inflicting Third World savagery on America.
Ohaha is smoking something illegal if he thinks Americans will accept Third World mob rule on his say-so.
OBAMA WAS DESPERATE FOR NJ's CORZINE TO WIN W/ ILLEGAL VOTES---OHAHA KEPT SAYING CORZINE WAS HIS "PARTNER" Obama put the power of the WH machine behind NJ's Corzine.
The NY Times reported:
(a) every TV ad Corzine put on the air was being screened by Obama's WH team.
(b) Corzine's aides gave the WH daily briefings.
(c) Obama’s pollsters took over for Corzine’s polling team, and,
(d) White House operatives were on the ground for internal strategy sessions,
(e) White House operatives were orchestrating obscure pep rallies with Latinos (kept secret from voters),
(f) Corzine had a "Peruvian Pac" endorsing him.
(g) Ohaha campaigned in the state three times, Biden was there twice. Ohaha TV ads ran relentlessly. BR> (h) Corzine promised to give illegals ‘driving credentials’ & in-state tuition.
(i) Corzine sucked up to illegal immigrants and REFUSED to enforce current immigration laws
(j)Corzine formed a Blue Ribbon committee of hypenates using tax dollars to mine votes for Corzine.
(k)Also sucking up to illegals was Sen Robert Menendez, a Corzine campaigner.
OTHER SALIENT POINTS
>> Incumbent Dem Jon Corzine (the wealthy loser) outspent the Repub winner Chris Chirstie about 4-1.
>> New Jersey has a huge Democratic registration.
>> Corzine bragged he had 20,000 paid union helpers on the ground election day to get out the vote.
>> There was a third party candidate siphoning off Republican votes.
>> Corzine had the power of incumbency.
>> Corzine had the power of a crooked Democrat Machine cooking the vote.
>> Ohaha hid $17.5 BILLION stimlulus in New Jersey.....for Corzine's reelection campaign.
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NEW JERSEY IS IDENTITY FRAUD CENTRAL FOR LATINOS
Two Texans busted in bogus ID operation in NJ
NORTH BERGEN, NJ -- July 21, 2006 -- Pelcastre brothers, Angel and Jorge, Dallas, Texas, were a walking threat to US national security, expert document forgers who, for a few thousand dollars, could give anyone a new identity, authorities said. The Texas brothers turned a NJ hotel room into a business office and were readying a massive cache of fake Social Security cards for delivery to a local NJ identity broker.
The Texas brothers were a "one-stop shop" for a myriad of fake US documents, including birth certificates, Social Security cards, driver's licenses for any state in the US, passports and resident alien cards, said state police. Officers happened upon two cars bearing Texas plates in a NJ hotel parking lot. Authorities wouldn't identify the NJ hotel by name for fear it would spark retribution. The Drug Interdiction Task Force, regularly runs checks.
The Texas brothers were followed to a NJ office supply store nearby where they purchased computer supplies. Officers then followed the Texans to a NJ storage facility in Secaucus, NJ, where the Texans loaded several boxes into a car. One of them stood lookout. Authorities approached the Texas brothers when they returned to the NJ hotel and questioned them separately. The Texas brothers consented to a search.
Police recovered laminating sheets with built-in security features, pages of blank documents waiting for fake names and information, finished documents, computers and software to create the fake IDs.
All told, the haul was worth about $500,000 on the street. Police also recovered $6,000 in cash, which was the first payment from a NJ fake document broker for a shipment of 500 Social Security cards.
AND THIS The Republican Lieutenat Governor candidate, former County Sheriff Kim Guadagno, had applied for the federal 287(g) program, which would seek to question every inmate coming to the County jail about his or her immigration status, regardless of the offense for which they are incarcerated. Sheriff Guadagno had sought to ensure that "criminals" are not unduly released for fear of further harm to the community. The 287(g) program would provide the sheriff with personnel and tools to punish individuals being held at the County jail, even if they do not meet the criteria set forth by Corzine's sucking up to illegals. Illegals lacerated Sheriff Guadagno for political pandering and for scouting incidents of indictable offenses such as driving under the influence by undocumented immigrants.
Pulling out all the stops for Corzine made Ohaha a VERY good target for those disgusted with Ohaha’s policies. The New Jersey race was the shape of things to come for dumbo Dems. The Ovomitons know they are headed into a Republican tsunami.........in 2010-12.
The Atzland obscenity plays a major roll in the socialist debasement of America, and Obamao knows it. He probably hates Aztec descendants more than La Raza kooks hate white people, but the Aztec myth fits well in the anti American scheme of things. Anyone with any sense, of any racial/cultural background can look at Mexico, and know that no one benefits from allowing America to become like that.
How about THIS for a change.....
Let's all insist that our government USE OUR TAX DOLLARS to defend the security of our nation, both from danger and from economic overload (on our hospitals, welfare, etc.) and...be still my heart.... ENFORCE the LAWS that are ALREADY IN PLACE ?
HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How about ENFORCING OUR LAWS FOR A CHANGE?
Isn't that what we hire ELECTED LEADERS TO DO?
That's exactly right.
There. Fixed.
IMHO, THIS is how Obamassiah and the dems will "sell" it to the "Gringos".
1-20 million new "taxpayers".
1-20 million new "Medicare" payers.
1-20 million new "Social Security" payers.
The REAL reasons for the dems:
1-20 million new dem voters.
1-20 million new "union members".
1-20 million new "Cloward-Piven" agents for the dems to "play with".
Gutierrez is a racist POS and should go “home,” to Mexico that is. How can we have people who belong to caucuses talking about themselves as “WE _______ fill in a nationality or race or whatever makes them tick, represent Americans? They will never say “WE AMERICANS” because “American” is a bad word nowadays and is made up to have a double meaning, i.e., racist!
However, I prefer that 0b0wa goes “home” first, wherever his “real” home is. Most likely, we’ll find out in ‘12 when he doesn’t run for reelection.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Ill.) voted for healthcare reform because Obama promised immigration NEXT! Gutierrez said abortion was okay in HCR because although he was a devout Catholic he took a oath to protect the Constitution and it says separation of church and state. I asked him where it stated that in the Constitution and he never answered on twitter.
We have hispanics in all states and their only goal is immigration and benefits that will go back to Mexico.
Los Angeles today is saying possible bankruptcy. Mayor Villaigarosa is denying it. The mayor is a former Mecha gang member. I have only heard him speak out for illegal benefits,including low income housing. In one month LA pays out 24 million for illegal childrens healthcare.
Yes, lets let in more of the same who simply want to take all they can get and then take over.
Heard an illegal on tv last night whining that Arizona was taking “his state” away by enforcing the law. Almost bit through my fork.
Your #54—correct. Gutierrez has been a blatant opportunist since his days in the Chicago city council. Gerrymandered into a safe district where he gets 80%+ of the vote.
The fact that our so-called leaders have done little to close our borders tells me that what you say is exactly what is coming down the road...with politicians like Luis leading the charge.
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