CNN Contributor Ignores GOP Obstructionism To Blame Obama For Delays On Immigration Reform

Navarro

CNN political contributor Ana Navarro suggested President Obama is to blame for not delivering on “promises on immigration” without noting the GOP's efforts to obstruct any action on the issue.

On the November 5 edition of CNN's Wolf, Navarro pointed to Obama's 2007 campaign promises on the issue and claimed that the president had not acted for “political reasons”:

NAVARRO: I do think that President Obama and Republicans both are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to this executive immigration action, particularly President Obama. He's under tremendous pressure from Latinos, from immigration advocates, from his progressive base. He has been making promises on immigration since he was campaigning as Senator Barack Obama in 2007, and time and time again, these groups have had to hear from him, “Wait. It's not your turn yet. For political reasons, you have to wait.” And a lot of them are done waiting. But on the other hand, you've got Republicans, some of whom I think have a genuine desire to work on immigration, but it will poison the well. When you've got people like Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio, and John McCain, authors of the bipartisan agreement in the Senate on immigration, sending him a letter saying, “You know, really think about it,” and, “This is going to have consequences,” I think it's a very difficult place.

But Navarro's assessment of who is to blame for lack of reform ignores Republican efforts to delay action on immigration by any means necessary, including threats of impeachment.

In 2013, after the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill that included a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, House Republicans steadfastly refused to act on it for over a year. This led President Obama to announce in June that he would take executive action on the issue if Republicans continued to refuse to vote on the bill.