Obama Campaign Denies that the Immigration Fiat was Political, Then Sends Out Fundraising Email Touting the Diktat

Here’s Obama aide David Plouffe on Sunday denying that President Obama’s unilateral, illegal immigration policy change was political.

CNN’s CANDY CROWLEY: But you can’t say that it was not done with some political consideration.

DAVID PLOUFFE: It was not, and…

CROWLEY: Five months before the election?

PLOUFFE: Well listen, who knows how the politics will turn out? But this decision was the right decision, well, we’ll see…

The New York Times reports today that, regarding Plouffe’s statement, it was a lie.

President Obama decided last week on a major policy shift to stop deportations of young illegal immigrants after administration officials saw that he was losing the initiative to Republicans on an issue he had long championed and that he was alienating the Latino voters who may be pivotal to his re-election bid.

In other words, as everyone knows but the administration pretends we don’t, the decision was totally political.

As if to drive the point home, within hours of the announcement the Obama campaign began using the immigration policy shift in a fundraising email targeting “Dreamers.” Who are, by the way, still not US citizens. Obama can’t get their votes (yet, at least not legally, though states lacking voter ID will make it easier for them to vote in November) but he can get their money since legal aliens are allowed to contribute to political campaigns. And thanks to Obama’s decree, they’re either legal now or soon will be.

Seven hours after President Barack Obama announced that some illegal aliens would be allowed to stay in the United States and could be allowed to work here, Katherine Archuleta, Obama’s national campaign director, e-mailed a fundraising letter seeking donations to his re-election effort.

The e-mail, with the subject line “wonderful news,” contains links to the website, where visitors can listen to Obama’s speech on immigration he gave at 2:08 p.m. on Friday in the White House Rose Garden.

Archuleta – who was hailed as the first Latina to run a major presidential campaign when she was named director in June 2011 – sent the e-mail at 9:08 p.m.

“Thanks to our president, this nation’s immigration policy just became more fair and more just,” the letter begins.

And outside the law, but she doesn’t mention that. Here is the email in full.

Friend —

Thanks to our president, this nation’s immigration policy just became more fair and more just.

Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security is taking steps to ensure that young, undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children by their parents, and who have followed the law since then, will be able to request temporary relief from deportation proceedings — and will be allowed to apply for authorization to work in this country.

They’re a group that we’ve come to call the “Dreamers” — and today, the country they love is telling them they should be able to dream as big as they want.

For years, the President has called on Congress to make common-sense fixes to our broken immigration system. They haven’t. So he did.

I am so proud to stand with President Obama on this decision. Watch what he had to say today — then join me by getting his back.

The hundreds of thousands of people who this policy might help are people who call the United States of America home. They study in our schools, play in our parks, and pledge allegiance to our flag. Some of them have served in our Armed Forces. They’ve started businesses; they’ve started families. They are Americans in every way but on paper.

Congress still has time to pass the DREAM Act. And if they do, policies like today’s will no longer be necessary.

We are not giving up on this issue.

Stand up and support the President today — and help send the message that this first big step must be followed by a real, permanent solution from Congress:

http://my.barackobama.com/Dreamers

Thank you,

Katherine

Katherine Archuleta
National Political Director
Obama for America

Young citizens struggling to find a job should remember the name Katherine Archuleta. She is proud to stand with the president who illegally added over a million competitors for scarce jobs.

The “Dreamers” site linked in the email is a typical political email harvester. Once you land there, you can’t go farther without giving Obama’s campaign personal information about yourself. It says:

President Obama has taken historic, direct action that will make our nation’s immigration policy more fair, more efficient, and more just.

This is the kind of progress we’re fighting for—and we’re not done.

Stand with the President today and show your support.

Add your name:

Edited video of the president’s Friday announcement follows that (the campaign cut out Neil Munro’s question, making it look like Obama is getting angry at no one in particular for no discernible reason).

“Direct action” is an interesting choice of words. The phrase is usually used by radicals who march on banks or whatever to conduct sit-ins and occupations. It’s a dog whistle to leftists who rebel because they hate the US and its laws, or just rebel because they feel like it, that this new policy is the sort of thing they should like.