Speech #1130119385

Irish. and Mexican have been waiting. Jamaicans and Filipinos. They have been waiting for family members to get visas in backlogs that stretch to 20 years because Congress refuses to act. They have been heartbroken by laws that say. on the other hand. they can apply for a green card because they are married to a U.S. citizen. but. on the other hand. they must wait in exile outside the country. away from their husband or wife. their loved one. for 10 years in order to get that green card. Two hundred thousand. 300.000. 400.000 deportations a year. These statistics represent people. people disappearing from their churches. from their kitchen tables. from parentteacher conferences. Why? Because Congress is doing nothing to make it stop or make any progress towards an immigration system based in reality and common sense. where people come legally with visas rather than smugglers. Now the GOP Conference in the House is saying. after a decade of delay. a decade of defying the American people. and a decade of demonizing immigrants. that they are so anxious to work on immigration reform. But there is just one thing stopping them: the President. The one thing preventing Republicans from taking action. they say. is that the President may also take action to keep families together and address the destructive nature of the deportation. But here is how one commentator in Atlantic magazine described it: "Boehners effort to hold congressional immigration reform hostage if Obama acts unilaterally is so absurd. Boehner killed the hostage long ago. Now hes hoping that if he pretends its still alive no one will notice the corpse lying on the floor." To put it another way. it is a little late for the mayor of Chernobyl to say he is worried about someone poisoning the well.