Hispanic lawmakers and immigration advocates harshly criticised President Barack Obama’s decision to delay executive action on immigration and vowed to keep pressuring him to make bold changes.
Democratic representatives Luis Gutierrez and Tony Cardenas on Sunday accused Obama of playing politics the day after the president said he would wait until after November’s congressional elections to change policy on immigration.
The announcement marked a reversal for Obama, who publicly promised to act by the end of summer.
“Playing it safe might win an election,” Gutierrez said on ABC’s This Week programme. “But it almost never leads to fairness, to justice and to good public policy that you can be proud of.”
Senate Democrats at risk of losing their seats in the November elections pressed the White House to hold off an executive order.
Though many immigration advocates have been pushing hard for the White House to ease up on deportations of undocumented immigrations, wariness among the broader public began to build this summer, fuelled by Republican accusations that executive actions would mark an overstepping of Obama’s authority.
Democrats worry that an executive action could cause them to lose control of the Senate in November.