The Obama administration is now claiming that the decision to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants under the age of 30 was not actually President Barack Obama’s decision, rather it was a decision made by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Senior Adviser David Plouffe made the rounds on the major Sunday morning news shows to assure the President’s critics that the policy shift couldn’t possibly have been a political ploy by the President because it wasn’t his idea.
“This isn’t about politics,” Plouffe said on Meet the Press. “First of all, this was a decision by the Homeland Security Department to allow them discretion.”
Critics of amnesty have said President Obama is using the issue in order to lock up the Latino vote in November. However, Plouffe repeatedly argued that this was about focusing DHS’ resources on catching criminals, not the President’s reelection campaign, but then went out of his way to bash Congress and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on the issue, taking a purely political tone.
“You have people who are brought here in many cases by young ages and study nothing our schools and want to serve in our military,” said Plouffe on FOX News Sunday. “This allows them to apply for a work authorization. Only one way to fix this and that is for Congress to pass the Dream Act. that is something that Governor Romney said he would veto.”
Plouffe blamed Republicans and a do-nothing Congress for the executive branch’s unilateral decision and rejected the notion that it was a potentially unconstitutional power grab.
“We are absolutely confident, our attorneys, [and] the Homeland Security attorneys, this is well within our boundaries to do,” he said on Meet the Press.
Plouffe also said Romney would most likely not get much of the Latino vote this fall.
Latino voters “are huge supporters of health care reform, if Mitt Romney is elected president, he said he would get rid of health care reform,” Ploufee claimed. “[Latinos are] huge supporters of student loans, Mitt Romney would decimate student loans.”
“During the Republican primaries in debate after debate, he said how he would just send the 11 million people home.
While the Obama administration’s new policy will undoubtedly be popular with Hispanic voters, it could turn off another important base of voters for the Democratic party – young people.
According to the Washington Post, opening the floodgates to millions of illegal immigrants will cause more competition for young people when it comes to finding jobs. With one in two young recent college grads out of work, the new policy could put further strain on an already weak job market for young people.
