Hours ahead of President Barack Obama’s reported announcement of his executive orders on immigration the Senate Democratic leadership at a press conference said they’ve got Obama’s back on the move.
Reid: “We told the president, and we’re telling him in front of the TV cameras: We’ve got his back.”
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) November 20, 2014
Reid: “we told the president, and we’re telling him in front of the TV cameras: we’ve got his back.”
— Burgess Everett (@burgessev) November 20, 2014
The comments came less than 12 hours before Obama is reported to deliver a speech where he will lay out his executive action moves on immigration reform. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the the secretary of the Democratic caucus, likened Obama’s move to ones Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan took during their respective administrations.
“Now we all know this is not a long term solution,” Murray said. “Plain and simple, the only way for us to permanently and effectively fix our broken immigration laws is through legislation. Administrative action is a bandaid, but it is better than nothing and nothing is what the House Republicans are offering. So we’re going to continue to support the president’s decision to take action but we will not stop in this Congress or the next, working towards a real, longterm solution through comprehensive immigration reform legislation.”
Reid also suggested that Obama could have taken action on immigration sooner.
“Here’s what I feel about it, my personal feeling,” Reid said. “We have had four years of Republicans opposing everything — actually it’s six years but we had enough senators that first term it didn’t matter that much. But for four years they’ve stopped virtually everything. My only surprise is the president’s waited as long as he has to do some of these things with executive action.”
