Executive Action: Good news for 5 million

Audience members react to President Obama's speech
on his use of executive action.

WELL, President Obama did what he said he would do and used his power of executive action to provide necessary changes to America's policies towards undocumented immigrants.

And also, not surprisingly, the Republicans had a heart attack of a reaction: from impeachment threats to treason charges.

The president had to use executive action in order to  bypass the House of Representatives' inaction on  on a tough immigration bill passed by the Senate but Speaker Boehner refused to allow it to come to a vote in the GOP-controlled House even though it doubled the number of Border Patrol agents, increased their budget, extend the border fence  by 700 miles - all the things Republicans wanted.

Jose Antonio Vargas

One of the approximately 5 million beneficiaries of Obama's action last week is Jose Antonio Vargas, one of the most outspoken undocumented Americans. 

The Filipino American became an outspoken advocate of immigration reform when in 2011,  he revealed his undocumented status in an article in The New York Times Magazine.

Obama's 2012 deferred action plan for Dreamers didn't include the 33-year- old Vargas because he missed the age limitations by a few months. On Thursday, Obama announced he was removing the age limit. 

"It's one of those things where I've been thinking about it all day, and it hasn't really sunk in," he told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "I have been here since I was 12 -- 21 years. For somebody to just say, OK, now it is OK. You can get a work permit. You can get a driver's license. You can travel outside the country. ... It's a great night."

He said he'll finally be able to leave the U.S. to visit his mother in the Philippines, whom he hasn't seen for 21 years.

Although often perceived as a Latino issue, immigration reform will impact the Asian-American community. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 1.3 million Asians are undocumented and over 60 percent of the Asian American community first-generation immigrants.

Unfortunately, the television networks didn't think Obama's speech was important enough to interrupt their regular prime-time programming so most of us missed it. (Heaven forbid we miss some of our favorite TV shows.) If you missed it, here it is.

Despite what Fox News insists on saying - and repeating over and over - Obama's plan is NOT amnesty. It also doesn't do anything for the remaining 6 million undocumented.

President Obama was late in delivering his campaign promise, but he's now made the leap despite the huge political risks. Now, get set for the fireworks as opponents prepare an all-out attack on anything -- I mean anything -- supported by the President. 

But wait, aren't they doing that already?

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Message to President Obama

IN JUST a few hours, President Obama is going to take executive action on immigration.

Although most of the focus has been on immigrants from South of the Border, and a lot of the fear has been generated against Latino Americans, Asian immigrants - which has surpassed Latinos in the number of immigrants coming here - will be greatly impacted by the immigration reform measures that will be proposed by the President.

One of the most outspoken undocumented immigrants is Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who came out of the shadows in 2011. The video is from Balita, a Philippine/American broadcast agency.

"I think the president is saying inaction is not acceptable anymore and he's saying the status quo can't remain," said Vargas. "The House Republicans can supersede the president, what the president does, by actually passing immigration rearm, but if all they want to do is point fingers and say, 'Mr. President, you can't do it.' I think the American public. poll after poll, has shown the Amerian people want a solution."

"I think our job is to get it out of both of these parties and make it a civil right, human rights issue,"said Vargas, "that people what's happening and people know we must act on."

The President is taking this action because:

"Give me your tired, ..."

One - he is on perfectly legal grounds and there's lots of precedence. Every American president since 1957 - Republican and Democrat - have used executive action on immigration reform.

Two - The U.S. Senate passed an immigration reform measure last year and the ROP-dominated House of Representatives have been sitting on it all this time, preferring no action than to grant any legislative victory to President Obama. This measure included elements to double our border patrol, the construction of a 700-mile fence along the Mexico-U.S. border, increased use of drones and other measures to assuage the ultra-conservative House members. No dice, was their response, thus necessitating the President's use of executive action.

What he proposes won't be a cave-in to most immigrant reform advocates. In fact, it may downright piss off the more liberal forces. Nevertheless, something is better than nothing. Nothing is what the country will get in the next two years when the GOP take over both Houses.

In his last two year's in office, here's hoping that the President stops catering to the conservatives and return to values and strategies he cultivated as a community activist on the streets of Chicago. To hell with compromise.

Of course, as President, Obama won't do that ... but, here's wising ...

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