Obama: "Patchwork" Immigration Reform Won't Work
President Barack Obama said he understands frustration over the hot-button issue of illegal immigration, but warned against local authorities' "patchwork" attempts to enact reform on their own.
"I understand the frustration of people in Arizona. But what we can't do is demagogue the issue," Mr. Obama told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith in an exclusive interview. "And what we can't do is allow a patchwork of 50 different states, or cities or localities, where anybody who wants to make a name for themselves suddenly says, 'I'm gonna be anti-immigrant and I'm gonna try to see if I can solve the problem ourself.'"
Last week, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton temporarily halted controversial portions of Arizona's newly enacted immigration law, including the requirements for police officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws and for immigrants to carry their papers at all times.
The ruling sets up a lengthy legal battle that may end up in the Supreme Court.
Obama: "Bumpy Road Ahead" for America
While the Obama administration filed a legal challenge to the law, Mr. Obama still acknowledged the "mission of controlling our immigration processes are absolutely correct. And that's why my administration's actually put more resources on the border to the point where we now have more of everything - border patrols. More over flights and, you know, more immigration agents. You name it, we've got more of them.
Mr. Obama also said he wants to "work with Arizona" on the issue.
Obama on Afghanistan
Despite recent turbulence surrounding the Afghanistan war - from a change in American leadership on the ground to consistently increasing casualty rates - Mr. Obama continued to voice confidence in the United States' presence there and repeated his goal of starting a troop drawdown next summer.
"We now have a strategy that can work. We've got one of our best generals today, Petraeus, on the ground. I've been very clear that we are going to move forward on a process of training Afghans so that they can provide for their own security. And then by the middle of next year, by 2011, we are gonna start thinning out our troops and giving Afghans more responsibility," Mr. Obama told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith in an exclusive interview.
Gen. David Petraeus took command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in July after Gen. Stanley McChrsystal resigned the previous month when critical comments he made about the administration surfaced in a Rolling Stone profile.
Aside from the change in leadership, Taliban resistance has stiffened and U.S. casualties have spiked during the summer. Six troop deaths Friday meant July became the deadliest month for U.S. forces since military operations began in 2001.
Despite the struggles, Mr. Obama asserted confidence in the mission's importance.
"If I didn't think that it was important for our national security to finish the job in Afghanistan, then I would pull them out today, because I have to sign letters to these families, families who have lost loved ones."
Obama on the Economy
Mr. Obama also addressed continued frustration over a slowing economic recovery, saying the U.S. is only "half-way back."
"This has been an extraordinary downturn. So that means if you are in a deeper whole, it's going to take longer to come back," he said. "When we have lost as many jobs as we have, when … you have that much hardship, people losing values in their homes, and their 401ks, et cetera, people have every right to be scare and to be frustrated. And I picked this job because I was convinced that I could solve these problems, not just short term but long term. But I also knew this was a bumpy road ahead and I don't expect the American people to be satisfied when we are only half way back."
Obama on Oil Spill
Efforts to permanently seal the blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well are expected to commence Monday night, but the long-term recovery - both in terms of environmental cleanup and compensating Gulf residents for lost income - will continue into the fall. BP has committed to pay the costs of spill, but also revealed last week that it was taking a $10 billion tax write-off on the money it has funneled into the spill response. Mr. Obama said he doesn't mind that "as long as they are meeting their obligations."
"I think that my priority has been to make sure that the fishermen, the store owners, the bait shop owners, those folks are made whole. We've gotten now a commitment that has almost completely determined the structure for $20 billion to help them. [BP is] also gonna have to … pay for the entire cleanup down there."
Smith interviewed Mr. Obama Friday in Detroit.
More From Harry Smith's Interview With the President:
Obama on His Daughters: They Make Me Laugh
Obama: We Don't Get Enough Credit for Success
Obama on Rangel Case
Copyright 2010 CBS. All rights reserved. "I understand the frustration of people in Arizona. But what we can't do is demagogue the issue," Mr. Obama told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith in an exclusive interview. "And what we can't do is allow a patchwork of 50 different states, or cities or localities, where anybody who wants to make a name for themselves suddenly says, 'I'm gonna be anti-immigrant and I'm gonna try to see if I can solve the problem ourself.'"
Last week, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton temporarily halted controversial portions of Arizona's newly enacted immigration law, including the requirements for police officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws and for immigrants to carry their papers at all times.
The ruling sets up a lengthy legal battle that may end up in the Supreme Court.
Obama: "Bumpy Road Ahead" for America
While the Obama administration filed a legal challenge to the law, Mr. Obama still acknowledged the "mission of controlling our immigration processes are absolutely correct. And that's why my administration's actually put more resources on the border to the point where we now have more of everything - border patrols. More over flights and, you know, more immigration agents. You name it, we've got more of them.
Mr. Obama also said he wants to "work with Arizona" on the issue.
Obama on Afghanistan
Despite recent turbulence surrounding the Afghanistan war - from a change in American leadership on the ground to consistently increasing casualty rates - Mr. Obama continued to voice confidence in the United States' presence there and repeated his goal of starting a troop drawdown next summer.
"We now have a strategy that can work. We've got one of our best generals today, Petraeus, on the ground. I've been very clear that we are going to move forward on a process of training Afghans so that they can provide for their own security. And then by the middle of next year, by 2011, we are gonna start thinning out our troops and giving Afghans more responsibility," Mr. Obama told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith in an exclusive interview.
Gen. David Petraeus took command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan in July after Gen. Stanley McChrsystal resigned the previous month when critical comments he made about the administration surfaced in a Rolling Stone profile.
Aside from the change in leadership, Taliban resistance has stiffened and U.S. casualties have spiked during the summer. Six troop deaths Friday meant July became the deadliest month for U.S. forces since military operations began in 2001.
Despite the struggles, Mr. Obama asserted confidence in the mission's importance.
"If I didn't think that it was important for our national security to finish the job in Afghanistan, then I would pull them out today, because I have to sign letters to these families, families who have lost loved ones."
Obama on the Economy
Mr. Obama also addressed continued frustration over a slowing economic recovery, saying the U.S. is only "half-way back."
"This has been an extraordinary downturn. So that means if you are in a deeper whole, it's going to take longer to come back," he said. "When we have lost as many jobs as we have, when … you have that much hardship, people losing values in their homes, and their 401ks, et cetera, people have every right to be scare and to be frustrated. And I picked this job because I was convinced that I could solve these problems, not just short term but long term. But I also knew this was a bumpy road ahead and I don't expect the American people to be satisfied when we are only half way back."
Obama on Oil Spill
Efforts to permanently seal the blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well are expected to commence Monday night, but the long-term recovery - both in terms of environmental cleanup and compensating Gulf residents for lost income - will continue into the fall. BP has committed to pay the costs of spill, but also revealed last week that it was taking a $10 billion tax write-off on the money it has funneled into the spill response. Mr. Obama said he doesn't mind that "as long as they are meeting their obligations."
"I think that my priority has been to make sure that the fishermen, the store owners, the bait shop owners, those folks are made whole. We've gotten now a commitment that has almost completely determined the structure for $20 billion to help them. [BP is] also gonna have to … pay for the entire cleanup down there."
Smith interviewed Mr. Obama Friday in Detroit.
More From Harry Smith's Interview With the President:
Obama on His Daughters: They Make Me Laugh
Obama: We Don't Get Enough Credit for Success
Obama on Rangel Case
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The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency expects to deport about 400,000 people this fiscal year, nearly 10 percent above the Bush administrations 2008 total and 25 percent more than were deported in 2007. The pace of company audits has roughly quadrupled since President George W. Bushs final year in office.
I think the sheriff spoke the truth: The federal government has become the enemy.
------
Hey macho man, you and the sheriff need to rise up against the enemy then.
Show 'em what you are made out of. Less talk. More action.
Va. Rules Police Can Ask Suspects About Immigration Status
Following in the footsteps of Arizona lawmakers, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli rules that state authorities can ask any suspects they stop or arrest about their immigration status.
LOL!
Your hero Algore ...
You should be embarassed to mention Al Gores name. Do you think somehow we forgot about swiftboats?
Your handle leads me to believe you were in the Jolly Green. Are you proud that your party destroyed a man's war record for that of a draft dodger?
Wanna tell me what that says about you?
What is Obama going to to about this breaking news????
Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas
Parkland is also home to the second busiest maternity ward in the country with almost 16,000 new babies arriving each year. (That's almost 44 per day---every day)! A recent patient survey indicated that 70 percent of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were illegal immigrants. That's 11,200 anchor babies born every year just in Dallas!! According to the article, the hospital spent $70.7 million delivering 15,938 babies in 2004 but managed to end up with almost $8 million dollars in surplus funding. Medicaid kicked in $34.5 million, Dallas County taxpayers kicked in $31.3 million and the feds tossed in another $9.5 million. The average patient in Parkland in maternity wards is 25 years old, married and giving birth to her second child. She is also an illegal immigrant. By law,pregnant women cannot be denied medical care based on their immigration status or ability to pay. OK, fine. That doesn't mean they should receive better care tha everyday, middle-class American citizens But at Parkland Hospital , they do. " Parkland Memorial Hospital has nine prenatal clinics. NINE!!!
The Dallas Morning News article followed a Hispanic woman who was a patient at one of the clinics and pregnant with her third child---her previous two were also born at Parkland. Her first two deliveries were free and the Mexican native was grateful because it would have cost $200 to have them in Mexico. This time, the hospital wants her to pay $10 per visit and $100 for the delivery but she was unsure if she could come up with the money. Not that it matters, the hospital won't turn her away. (I wonder why they even bother asking at this point.)
"How long has this been going on? What are the long-term effects?
Well, another subject of the article was born at Parkland in 1986 shortly after her mother entered the US illegally - now she is having her own child there as well. (That's right; she's technically a U.S. citizen.) These women receive free prenatal care including medication, nutrition, birthing classes and child care classes. They also get freebies such as car seats, bottles, diapers and formula. Most of these things are available to American citizens as well, but only for low-income applicants, and even then, the red tape involved is almost insurmountable. Because these women are illegal immigrants, they do not have to provide any sort of legitimate identification - no proof of income. An American citizen would have to provide a social security number which would reveal their annual income - an illegal immigrant need only claim to be poor and the hospital must take them at their word.
Parkland Hospital offers indigent care to Dallas County residents who earn less than $40,000 per year. (They also have to prove that they did not refuse health coverage at their current job.. Yeah, the 'free' care is not so easy for Americans.) There are about 140 patients who received roughly $4 million dollars for un-reimbursed medical care. As it turns out, they did not qualify for freetreatment because they resided outside of Dallas County so the hospital is going to sue them! Illegal's get it all free! But U S citizens who live outside of Dallas County get sued! How stupid is this? As if that isn't annoying enough, the illegal immigrant patients are actually complaining about hospital staff not speaking Spanish. In this AP story, the author speaks with a woman who is upset that she had to translate comments from the hospital staff into Spanish for her husband. The doctor was trying to explain the situation to the family and the mother was forced to translate for her husband who only spoke Spanish. This was apparently a great injustice to her. In an attempt to create a Spanish-speaking staff, Parkland Hospital is now providing incentives in the form of extra pay for applicants who speak Spanish.. Additionally, medical students at the University of Texas Southwestern for which Parkland Hospital is the training facility will now have a Spanish language requirement added to their already jammed-packed curriculum. No other school in the country boasts such a ridiculous multi-semester (multicultural) requirement. Remember that this is about only ONE hospital in Dallas, Texas. There are many more hospitals across our country that must also deal with this.