On Monday, speaking to a Spanish Language radio program, Obama said it will take time to change US Visa and immigration policies. He recalled that even after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech, it took years more for African Americans to achieve many of their goals. Let me say this as an African American: We worked for decades on civil rights, Obama said. "It didn't come after two years. People had to march, they had to have their heads beaten, they had fire hoses put on them . . . Change isn't easy. It doesn't happen overnight".
Many Latino voters have grown disenchanted over the signature issue of US Visa and immigration policy and the President is heavily courting Latino voters in the final days of the fall political campaigns. While the President correctly points out the civil rights struggle took years to accomplish, what he conveniently fails to mention is that approximately 11 months after the "I Have a Dream Speech" the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed ending discrimination against african-americans and women. So while the struggle continued for years, legislation was proposed, debated, amended and signed within 11 months. That is something Latino voters could only dream of.
Mr. President, with all due respect, we are heartened that you hold immigration reform in comparison to the Civil Rights struggle, but the two issues could not highlight a broken government any better. 11 months for landmark legislation, versus over a decade of languishing in the shadows.
