Obama sells immigration plan in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS – President Barack Obama took his plan to spare millions of immigrants from the threat of deportation to a Las Vegas high school gym Friday, the first step in an effort to put a human face on his divisive new policy.
Having delivered on a promise to act unilaterally to fix the nation’s broken immigration system, Obama is betting he can harness the full power of the presidential bully pulpit to convince Americans of the merits of his plan, even as Republicans try just as hard to rally the country against it.
Obama addressed nearly 3,000 students and supporters at Del Sol High School, where nearly two years ago he launched a public push to pass a legislative fix for what he said was a broken immigration system. The event had a pep-rally atmosphere befitting the kickoff of a campaign by the second-term president.
Members of activist groups that had at times heckled the president at previous events this year because of his delays in taking action offered an enthusiastic welcome.
“Thank you, Mr. President!” a woman shouted at one point during the president’s remarks. “You’re welcome!” he replied.
Obama said his plan will enable the 11 million immigrants living and working illegally in the U.S. to come out of the shadows and participate in American society. He blamed House Republicans for failing to pass a bipartisan reform bill, but vowed he would tackle the problem without the help of Congress, if necessary.
“I’m not giving up,” the president said. “I will never give up.”
As he did in a prime-time speech Thursday night, Obama appealed to Americans’ sense of compassion and morality to help stir up the public support he will need to push through his plan.
Republicans, meanwhile, are hoping to tap into Americans’ frustrations and anger, urging the public to reject Obama’s unilateral actions.
More than 2,000 miles away Friday, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, stood in a hallway outside his Capitol office to deliver his first public rebuke of the president for choosing to “sabotage” any remaining hope of a legislative solution.
But absent from most Republicans’ reaction thus far is any direct response to the policy itself. Instead, the party is focusing, as Boehner did, on what they see as a provocative presidential act – a view they hope the American public shares.
“President Obama has turned a deaf ear to the people that he was elected and we were elected to serve. But we will not do that,” Boehner said. “In the days ahead, the people’s house will rise to this challenge.”