POTUS admitted that 'stitching folks from different backgrounds together' is 'hard but worth doing'
Friday, November 28, 2014
President Obama quite succinctly summed up the absurdity of the Republicans' issues with his immigration reform in Chicago yesterday, arguing that perhaps the only people who can legitimately be pissed off about illegal immigrants are Native Americans.
Returning to his hometown to speak, the president tried to place his recent executive action, which saved five million immigrants from deportation, within a great American tradition of welcoming foreigners.
"If you look at the history of immigration in this country, each successive wave there have been periods where the folks who were already here have said, 'Well I don't want those folks,'" he said. "Even though the only people who have the right to say that are some Native Americans."
His orders were sufficient in upsetting the GOP, but he also faced criticism from immigration activists who feel they do not go far enough.
Hecklers shouted "Not one more!" and "Stop deportations!" and "There is no justice!" during the speech, to which he replied at one point: "It doesn’t make much sense to yell at me right now."
Comment comes around 10:05:
Ploughing on, he argued: "Part of what America is about is stitching together folks from different backgrounds and different faiths and different ethnicities. That's what makes us special and, look, let's face it, sometimes that's hard to do, but it's worthwhile, it's worth doing."
As the immigration debate rumbles on, Obama made a joke about it yesterday as he pardoned the turkey as is Thanksgiving tradition.
"I am here to announce what I’m sure will be the most talked-about executive action this month," he joked."Today, I’m taking an action fully within my legal authority, the same kind of action taken by Democrats and Republican presidents before me, to spare the lives of two turkeys — Mac and Cheese — from a terrible and delicious fate."