Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

For Immediate Release- Statement
January 28, 2010

President Obama’s State of the Union neglects the “Leadership Deficit”
Immigrants remind him: Friends Keep Promises!
ICIRR Calls for March to Washington

During his State of the Unions address last night President Obama spoke about the need to address the fiscal deficit in our nation’s budget, but there is another deficit that President Obama must attend to. President Obama suffers from a leadership deficit on the issue of immigration reform. The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is deeply disappointed with the cursory mention of the need to fix our nation’s broken immigration laws buried over an hour into last night’s State of the Union address.

The passing mention of the need to “continue the work to fix our broken immigration system” came with no mention of the $1.5 trillion that immigration reform would generate to the economy or the need to close the trap door on the wage and safety floor for workers and our economy. The President’s non-leadership on this issue also neglected to speak to the national security imperative of bringing the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants out of the shadows and registering so that we know who is living in our nation. The President also failed to lift up the human impact of the destruction of hundreds of thousands of families – most with U.S. citizen members – through deportations of immigrant workers. At the current pace President Obama will deport over 400,000 immigrants in his first year in office, more than President Bush.

With the promise of change, we elected one of Chicago’s own to the highest office in our nation a year ago. The Latino and immigrant communities voted in record numbers and changed the political landscape in many states. They did so because of Obama’s campaign promise for comprehensive immigration reform during his first year in office. ICIRR reminds President Obama that in Chicago we believe that friends keep promises.

President Obama must address his leadership deficit on the need for immigration reform. We want the Congress and the President to act. We want bipartisanship, leadership and results from our elected officials and Washington isn't doing its job. The 2008 election was about change. Our leaders haven't delivered.

As there is a leadership deficit in Washington, D.C., now is the time for the immigrant community to exert their own leadership. ICIRR calls for a march of our immigrant communities to Washington, D.C., to show our commitment to resolving our immigration crisis and to demand leadership from the Washington politicians.

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