MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, March 28th 2024 - 13:39 UTC

 

 

Obama says his biggest failure was not passing immigration reform

Friday, September 21st 2012 - 06:38 UTC
Full article 3 comments
The US president made the statement during an interview with Univision at the University of Miami The US president made the statement during an interview with Univision at the University of Miami

UN President Barack Obama admitted on Thursday “my biggest failure so far” is a lack of comprehensive immigration reform, but it wasn't “for lack of trying or desire”.

During a town hall at the University of Miami, Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos reminded Obama he promised in May 2008 “we will have, in the first year, an immigration bill that I strongly support.”

Ramos pointed out Obama did not introduce immigration reform legislation during his first year and asked the president to “acknowledge that you did not keep your promise.”

The president said when he took office in January 2009, his first priority was “making sure that we prevented us from going into a Great Depression” through emergency measures “that took up a huge amount of time in the first year.”

“But even in that first year, one of my first acts was to invite every single member of Congress who had previously been supportive of comprehensive immigration reform, and to say to them, we need to get this done,” he said.

“And what I confess I did not expect -- and so I'm happy to take responsibility for being naive here -- is that Republicans who had previously supported comprehensive immigration reform -- my opponent in 2008, who had been a champion of it and who attended these meetings -- suddenly would walk away,” Obama said. “That's what I did not anticipate”.

”Well, Jorge, as you remind me, my biggest failure so far is we haven't gotten comprehensive immigration reform done,“ the president said, drawing a laugh from the audience. ”So we're going to be continuing to work on that. But it's not for lack of trying or desire and I'm confident we're going to accomplish that”.
 

Categories: Politics, United States.

Top Comments

Disclaimer & comment rules
  • briton

    mmmmm
    We would say it was sitting on the fence,
    And thus splitting your cheeks in two,

    immigrants in
    Like ours,
    it’s a failure,…

    Sep 21st, 2012 - 11:10 am 0
  • aussie sunshine

    HELLO HELLO i THINK HE WANTS THE HISPANIC VOTE. tYPICAL BLOODY POLITICIAN.

    Sep 22nd, 2012 - 11:31 pm 0
  • British_Kirchnerist

    Since he raised the issue, I can think of bigger failures, like keeping Guantanamo open and escalating the Afghan War...

    Sep 25th, 2012 - 03:47 am 0
Read all comments

Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!