Rep. Luis Gutierrez ripped President Obama on Sunday for “walking away from our values” with his decision to delay executive action on immigration until after the midterm elections.
The Illinois Democrat is a staunch advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, including legalizing the millions of illegal immigrants currently residing in the United States. He did not threaten that Hispanics would abandon the Democrats on Nov. 4 ballot and said he would keep working with the White House on immigration reform.
But Gutierrez indicated that Obama’s move could hurt the Democratic Party on Election Day in states like California and Colorado even as it helps endangered Democrats running for Senate in red states. The president originally said that he would move unilaterally this month to legalize some portion of undocumented immigrants, but reversed course after protests from vulnerable Senate Democrats.
“It’s clear that playing it safe is what is going on at the White House among Democratic circles. And playing it safe means walking away from our values and our principles. Look, they’ve looked at polling in four or five states where there aren’t large Latino constituencies,” Gutierrez said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Playing it safe might win an election; sometimes you lose an election playing it safe also,” Gutierrez added. “Latinos have supported this president.”
