In the Rose Garden yesterday, President Obama reiterated his commitment to immigration reform and reproached House Republicans for their unwillingness to confront this important issue.
Speaking a year ago to the month when the Senate passed an immigration reform bill, the President outlined what Republican obstruction has meant over the past year:
• We have fewer resources to strengthen our borders;
• Businesses can still game the system by hiring undocumented workers — which punishes businesses that are playing by the rules and hurting the wages of hard-working Americans;
• The best and brightest that come to study in the United States are still forced to leave, heading overseas and subsequently competing against our workers; and
• Eleven million immigrants are still living in the shadows, instead of having the opportunity to earn their citizenship.
What’s more, “it’s meant the heartbreak of separated families,” the President stressed.
“Their argument seems to be that because the system’s broken, we shouldn’t make an effort to fix it. It makes no sense. It’s not on the level. It’s just politics. Plain and simple.”
