President Obama anticipated widespread criticism for his decision to delay executive action on immigration reform until after the November midterms but was willing to take the “political heat” because it would strengthen the policy, the White House said Monday.
“The president is willing to take a little political heat,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, “in order to ensure that the policy he puts forward is one that can be sustained.”
After weeks of pledging unilateral action on immigration reform by the end of summer, the White House announced over the weekend that Obama would instead unveil his plan by the end of the year.
The Latino community, in turn, accused the president of putting the interests of vulnerable Democratic lawmakers ahead of his own principles.
For his part, Earnest insisted that “there’s no arguing about the fact” that injecting the immigration debate into the current political environment would damage the long-term sustainability of the executive action.
