For the second time, the Obama administration has put off an immigration reform summit. The event was scheduled for June 17 at the White House, but has now been scratched from the schedule without another date set.
The meeting was to have included a bipartisan contingency from Congress as well as advocacy groups and other stakeholders. It was originally moved from June 8, due to a scheduling conflict, according to White House aides and was postponed again for the same reason, they said Friday.
Obama and Congress are struggling to pass major health care reform legislation and the debate has been so consuming that even energy reform, Obama’s second priority, has faded into the background.
“Health care first, energy second,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said earlier this week.
Nonetheless, groups advocating immigration reform said on Friday they planned to keep pushing Obama and Congress on the matter by reminding them of their promise to begin working on the issue this year.
“While it is disappointing to hear this meeting has been delayed again, we know President Obama and our congressional leadership remain firmly committed to realizing just and humane immigration reform this year,” said Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Campaign for Community Change.
The House Congressional Hispanic Caucus has been working behind the scenes to get consensus in the House on some kind of immigration reform plan, but with lawmakers’ attention focused on health care and energy legislation, it seems an unlikely feat this year, especially if Obama isn’t putting it at the top of his list. Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez said she was “disappointed” that the meeting was cancelled, but said “we are confident the President will keep his word by enacting reform this year.”
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