[ Scumfuck despot Obuma at it again ]
President Obama confirms that illegal immigrants who qualify for his programs won't be deported regardless of judge's order
- 'If you’ve been here for a long time and if you qualify, generally... even with legal uncertainty, they should be in a good place,' Obama said
- POTUS was participating in a town hall hosted by Telemundo and MSNBC and led by an anchor affiliated with both networks, Jose Diaz-Balart
- ICE Officials who don't abide by his directives are 'going to be answerable to the head of the Department of Homeland Security,' the president said
- Obama again promised to reject legislation under consideration by the the Republican-led House and Senate undoing his actions
- 'I will veto that vote, because I’m absolutely confident that what we’re doing is the right thing to do,' he said to rancorous applause.
By
Francesca Chambers For Dailymail.com
Published: 21:36 EST, 25 February 2015 | Updated: 05:48 EST, 26 February 2015
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President Barack Obama said Wednesday that illegal immigrants he said could stay in the country would not be deported, regardless of a judge's injunction on his executive actions, as a court battle between his administration and more than two dozen states continues.
Following the Texas judge's decision to put a hold on the president's programs, the Department of Homeland Security said it would not begin implementation of the first wave of the president's programs.
But Obama told supporters of his immigration measures on Wednesday evening that in the meantime, his administration would continue to move to the front of the line criminals and illegal immigrants not included in his programs.
'If you’ve been here for a long time and if you qualify, generally, then during this period, even with legal uncertainty, they should be in a good place,' Obama said during a town hall hosted by Telemundo and MSNBC.
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President Barack Obama, at a town hall meeting on immigration hosted by Telemundo and MSNBC, on Wednesday confirmed that illegal immigrants he said could stay in the country would not be deported, regardless of a judge's injunction on his executive actions
Republican-appointed judge Andrew Hanen last week granted a request from a block of 26 states to temporarily put a hold on the president's executive actions.
DHS said the following day that it would appeal the decision but, 'in the meantime, we recognize we must comply with it.'
At the same time, it claimed the court order did not affect its 'ability to set and implement enforcement priorities.'
'Pursuant to those enforcement priorities, we continue to prioritize public safety, national security, and border security,' Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson said.
And while the judge's injunction applies to all new applicants to the president's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, it has no effect on previous participants who were accepted when it launched in 2012.
The Obama administration is currently awaiting a response to its request for a stay from Hanen. The White House said Wednesday that it wouldn't ask a higher court to get involved until it had exhausted its options at the district court level.
President Obama blames immigration woes on Republicans
At the bilingual town hall, taped in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday afternoon and aired during primetime on the sponsoring networks, the president encouraged illegal immigrants who qualify for his programs to continue readying their paperwork because the law is on his administration's side.
'In the meantime, understand that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the border security mechanisms that we have in place, they are instructed to focus on criminals and people who have just crossed the border,' he said.
And ICE Officials who don't abide by his directives are 'going to be answerable to the head of the Department of Homeland Security,' Obama said, 'because he’s been very clear about what our priorities should be. And I’ve been very clear about what our priorities should be.'
Obama said both he and DHS head Johnson were 'absolutely committed' to the new deportation processes and they are working with state and local governments to make sure families are able to stay together.
'You are going to see I think a substantial change, even as the case works its way through the courts,' he said.
It is unfortunate that Republican governors are suing his administration, Obama said, and that they were able to find a judge to enjoin the administration from moving forward with its plans.
'But that’s just the first part of the process. This is just one federal judge. We have appealed it very aggressively,' the president noted.
'We’re going to be as aggressive as we can,' he said, not only because his administration is legally in the right but because 'history is also on our side.'
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Obama was interviewed by MSNBC and Telemundo's Jose Diaz-Balart at Florida International University in Miami. The president said his administration is 'going to be as aggressive' as it can in fighting the court order
Pressed to explain why he didn't save all illegal immigrants from removal, Obama explained that such a move exceeded his constitutional authority.
'If, in fact, we were completely just rewriting the immigration laws, then actually the other side would have a case, because we can’t violate statutes,' Obama told Diaz-Balart. 'We can’t violate laws that are already in place.
'What we can do is make choices to implement those laws,' he said, which is what Obama claims his administration has done.
Obama found himself on the defense again moments later Diaz-Balart relayed a question he said was commonly asked by viewers of both networks before the event: Why didn't the president and his party pass comprehensive immigration reform during his first several years in office when Democrats were a the helm of both the House and Senate.
'I don’t know if anybody remembers, José, that when I took office and I had a majority, we had the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression,' Obama responded, with a hint of snark in his tone.
'The global economy was collapsing. The unemployment rate in the Latino community and the immigrant community had soared. People were losing homes and entire communities were being devastated. So it wasn’t as if I was just sitting back, not doing anything.'
Democrats did manage to push through healthcare reform during that time, however, as Diaz-Balart pointed out.
'We were moving very aggressively on a whole host of issues,' Obama told him. 'And we moved as fast as we could and we wanted immigration done. We pushed for immigration to be done. But, ultimately, we could not get the votes to get it all done.'
That is 'one of the challenges of being President' Obama said - 'there are crying needs everywhere.'
'I don’t regret having done the ACA. I just described for you there are millions of people who are not going to go bankrupt because they got sick because we got that done,' he said frankly.
'So if the question is, would I have loved to have gotten everything done in the first two years, absolutely, because then, for the next six, I could have relaxed.'
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Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, left, and Speaker of the House John Boehner, right, toast with mint juleps during an event earlier this month. Obama accused Republicans in Congress, who are led by the two men, during the town hall of 'trying to hold hostage' funding for the Department of Homeland Security and putting at risk the nation's security
The president also addressed the ongoing fight between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill over his immigration measures.
Senators agreed to move forward today with legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security but it has not yet passed the proposal. The House must also agree to it before it can be sent the president.
Republicans had initially tied funding for Homeland Security to language undercutting Obama, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed off that plan with a deadline to fund DHS or see it partially shut down looming and no end to a Democratic filibuster in sight.
He's now pursing a two-pronged strategy in which the Senate will first vote to approve the funding measure, and then vote to put a check on Obama's power.
Conservatives in the House indicated today that they may not support the appropriations bill if Speaker John Boehner brings similar legislation to the floor of the lower chamber, pointing out that the bulk of the agencies housed in DHS would remain open even if a shutdown were to occur.
Because they are deemed 'essential' to the functioning of the federal government, roughly 85 percent of the department's workers would be kept on the job.
Obama accused Republicans during the town hall of 'trying to hold hostage' funding for DHS and putting at risk the nation's security.
If GOP leaders in the House and Senate 'want to have a vote on whether what I’m doing is legal or not, they can have that vote,' he said.
'I will veto that vote, because I’m absolutely confident that what we’re doing is the right thing to do,' he said to rancorous applause.
'And in the meantime, we’re going to continue to pursue all legal avenues,' he said, 'to make sure that we have a country in which we are respecting not only the law, because we’re a nation of laws, but we’re also respecting the fact that we’re a nation of immigrants.'
