Obama: I Can Work With Pro-Amnesty, Not Pro-Enforcement Republicans

In an interview with National Public Radio, President Barack Obama inaccurately described the views of Republicans who seek immigration-law enforcement, then claimed he could not work with them. However, he is willing to work on legislation with pro-amnesty Republicans who want to “fix a broken immigration system.” The president was unapologetic regarding his recent executive amnesty announcement despite the ramifications it has for even working with amnesty-friendly Republicans.

The following are excerpts from the NPR interview, which took place before the president went on vacation:

“Well, let me figure out if there’s overlap on immigration. In an interview in August, you described the Republican Party as being “captive to nativist elements of the party.” What did you mean by that, and can you work with people who you think of in that way?

“Well, on immigration, I probably can’t; Steve King and I fundamentally disagree on immigration. If your view is that immigrants are either fundamentally bad to the country or that we actually have the option of deporting 11 million immigrants, regardless of the disruptions, regardless of the cost, and that that is who we are as Americans, I reject that.

“On the other hand, I think that there are a lot of Republicans who recognize that not only do we need to fix a broken immigration system, strengthen our borders and streamline the legal immigration system, but that we have to show realism, practicality and insist on accountability from those who are here illegally and that the best way to do that is to provide them a path to get legal — paying a fine, submitting to background checks and so forth.

“I think the Republican Party contains a lot of legislators who recognize that; and we know that because those folks voted for a comprehensive bill in the Senate that in many ways was more generous than I was able to offer through executive action.

“So, the question then becomes, by me having taken these actions, does that spur those voices in the Republican Party who I think genuinely believe immigration is good for our country? Does it spur them to work once again with Democrats and my administration to get a reasonable piece of legislation done?

“Or does it simply solidify what I do think is a nativist trend in parts of the Republican Party? And if it’s the latter, then probably we’re not going to get much more progress done, and it’ll be a major debate in the next presidential election.

“I think that if a Republican lawmaker was sitting here, he might say, ‘Wait a minute. I’m not captive to nativist elements. I have actual concerns, and you’re not addressing them.’

“Well, the problem is what are those concerns and how is it that I’m not addressing them? If the concern is border security, we’ve got more resources, more border police, more money being spent at our borders than any time in the last 30, 40 years. If the concern is the flow of illegal workers into the country, that flow is about half of what it was and is lower than any time since the 1970s…If you’re concerned that somehow illegal immigrants are a drain on resources and forcing, you know, Americans to pay for services for these folks, well, every study shows that’s just not the case. Generally, these folks don’t use a lot of services, and my executive action specifically is crafted so that they’re not a drain on taxpayers; instead, they’re going to be paying taxes, and we can make sure that they are.

“So, you know, they’d have to identify for me specifically what those concerns are other than some sense that, you know, these folks just shouldn’t be here.”