Politics obama immigration reformborder crisisPolitics

Obama Defends Immigration Delay

Obama Blames Immigration Delay On Border Crisis
Alana Horowitz
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President Obama fired back at criticisms of his decision to push back a much-anticipated executive action on immigration. Immigration reform advocates, as well as Republicans, have accused the president of stalling to avoid hurting Democrats in the midterm elections.

Obama instead pointed to the ongoing crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border where thousands of undocumented children remain in limbo at a detention center.

“The truth of the matter is that the politics did shift midsummer because of that problem,” the president told "Meet The Press."

Obama said that he intends to pursue the executive action as soon as his administration can get "our ducks in a row."

"I'm going to act because it's the right thing for the country,” he told NBC. “But it's going to be more sustainable and more effective if the public understands what the facts are on immigration, what we've done on unaccompanied children, and why it's necessary.”

Democrats and Republicans have traded blame for months on Congress' failure to find a solution to the border crisis.

Watch more of Obama's interview in the video above.

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Before You Go

Why Latin Americans Really Come To The U.S.
It's not just about the 'American Dream'(01 of20)
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The conventional wisdom says that most Latin American migrants who come to the United States are looking for a better life, inspired by the "American Dream." And it's hard to deny that there's a lot of truth in that.

But there's another side to the story. People leave Latin America because life there can be very hard. Poverty, political instability and recurring financial crises often conspire to make Latin American life more challenging than in the U.S., a wealthy country with lots of job opportunities.

Living on the northern side of the U.S.-Mexico border, it's easy to view Latin America as another world, isolated from the United States. But the truth is that the U.S. government has historically made life in Latin America harder by overthrowing democratically elected governments, financing atrocities and pushing trade policies that undermine Latin American industries, dealing blows to local economies. Perhaps instead of building walls, the United States should focus on being a better neighbor.

Here are 19 ways the U.S. government has helped spur immigration by making life harder in Latin America. (credit:ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Took over almost half of Mexico(02 of20)
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In 1846, shortly after the annexation of Texas, President James Polk ordered U.S. troops into disputed lands, precipitating a war against Mexico. The war ended with the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. This is what Chicano activists mean when they say "the border crossed them." Today, 33.5 million people of Mexican origin live in the United States. (credit:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="Flickr" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5c9a8b89e4b012c156659dca" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="22" data-vars-position-in-unit="27">Flickr</a>:<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60584010@N00/3212637401" role="link" class=" js-entry-link cet-external-link" data-vars-item-name="leiris202" data-vars-item-type="text" data-vars-unit-name="5c9a8b89e4b012c156659dca" data-vars-unit-type="buzz_body" data-vars-target-content-id="http://www.flickr.com/photos/60584010@N00/3212637401" data-vars-target-content-type="url" data-vars-type="web_external_link" data-vars-subunit-name="before_you_go_slideshow" data-vars-subunit-type="component" data-vars-position-in-subunit="23" data-vars-position-in-unit="28">leiris202</a>)
Colonized Puerto Rico in 1898(03 of20)
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The United States invaded Puerto Rico in 1898 during the Spanish American War and has retained control of the island ever since. More people of Puerto Rican descent currently live in the United States than on the island. (credit:A member of the U.S. Army Honor Guard salutes the Puerto Rican and U.S. flags.)
Took over Cuba, put a naval base there, and only left when the new government allowed them the right to intervene at will(04 of20)
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And yet somehow, U.S. politicians viewed themselves as liberators. Later U.S. administrations would use the naval base to jail suspected terrorists and hold them indefinitely without trial, also submitting them to torture tactics, according to Human Rights Watch. (credit:Wikimedia: Col. Theodore Roosevelt stands triumphant on San Juan Hill, Cuba.)
Invaded and occupied Cuba two more times(05 of20)
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Because once wasn't good enough, the United States invaded and occupied Cuba again in 1906 and once more in 1912. It retained the legal authority to intervene in Cuba's affairs until the 1933 Sergeants' Revolt overthrew U.S.-backed dictator Gerardo Machado. (credit:WikiMedia: The leaders of the 1933 Sergeants revolution: Ramón Grau, Sergio Carbó and Sgt. Fulgencio Batista.)
Invaded Nicaragua and occupied the country for two decades(06 of20)
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The United States invaded Nicaragua in 1912 and occupied the country until 1933. Shortly after the U.S. forces left, Anastasio Somoza took over, launching a decades-long dynastic dictatorship with U.S. support. (credit:WikiMedia: Fort on Coyotepe hill, near Masaya, Nicaragua, during the Nicaraguan Civil War and U.S. occupation, circa 1912.)
Invaded Haiti and occupied the country for nearly 20 years(07 of20)
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Woodrow Wilson ordered the Marines to invade and occupy Haiti in 1915 after the assassination of the Haitian president. The troops didn't leave until 1934. (credit:PA)
Invaded the Dominican Republic in 1916(08 of20)
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Mainly to collect debts, the United States invaded the Dominican Republic in 1916. The occupation lasted eight years. (credit:WikiMedia: U.S. Marines in action in the Dominican Republic, c. 1916-1920. )
Overthrew Guatemala's elected government in 1954(09 of20)
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At the behest of United Fruit Company, a U.S. corporation with extensive holdings in Central America, the CIA helped engineer the overthrow of the Guatemalan government in 1954, ushering in decades of civil war that resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. (credit:Getty Images: 28th June 1954, Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, right.)
Organized the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961(10 of20)
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The CIA organized and financed a group of anti-Fidel Castro exiles in an ill-fated attempt to overthrow the revolutionary government. The botched invasion ended in disaster and Castro declared himself a "Marxist-Leninist" eight months later. (credit:Alamy)
Supported the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Brazil(11 of20)
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The administration of Lyndon Johnson assisted the overthrow of the democratically elected Brazilian government in 1964. The resulting military dictatorship, which tortured thousands of opponents and "disappeared" hundreds, ruled the country until 1985. (credit:WikiMedia: U.S. Army officer Charles Murray walks with Pres. John F. Kennedy, left, and Brazilian Pres. João Goulart on April 3, 1962.)
Helped overthrow Chile's elected government in 1973(12 of20)
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Gen. Augusto Pinochet, with the support of the Nixon administration, overthrew the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, ushering in decades of violent dictatorship. (credit:Alamy: Former President of Chile Salvador Allende. )
Backed a military dictatorship in Argentina that killed 30,000 people(13 of20)
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When the military overthrew the Argentine government and installed a dictatorship in 1976, the Gerald Ford administration responded by offering its wholehearted support and financial assistance. The dictatorship lasted until 1983. (credit:Former head of Argentina's military dictatorship Jorge Rafael Videla.)
Paid a failed rebel army to overthrow the Nicaraguan government (14 of20)
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When the left-wing Sandinista government rose to power in Nicaragua, it did not please Washington. In 1979, the U.S. began years of financing the "Contras," a right-wing group responsible for committing atrocities and smuggling drugs into the U.S. with the Reagan administration's knowledge. (credit:Alamy)
Invaded Haiti again in 1994(15 of20)
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One invasion wasn't good enough. The U.S. military returned in 1994. (credit:A U.S. Army soldier monitors the surroundings of the National Palace, on Oct. 15, 1994, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.)
Fomented a rebellion in Panama in order to build a canal(16 of20)
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The Theodore Roosevelt administration helped a group of Panamanian nationalists break away from Colombia, after that country's Senate rejected the terms of a deal to allow the U.S. to use its territory there to build a canal. After Panama broke away, the new country ceded permanent control of the canal zone to the U.S. government, which finally returned it in 1999, after years of protests. (credit:WikiMedia: Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal.)
Backed the Salvadoran military as it committed atrocities in the 1980s(17 of20)
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El Salvador's military committed atrocities throughout the 1980s with U.S. funding, including -- but not limited to -- raping nuns, assassinating priests and killing hundreds of children in a single massacre at the village of El Mozote. (credit:AP: Former Salvadoran military officials. )
Refuses to control the flow of weapons into Mexico(18 of20)
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Mexican authorities seized almost 70,000 weapons of U.S. origin from 2007 to 2011. In 2004, the U.S. Congress declined to renew a 10-year ban on the sale of assault weapons. They quickly became the guns of choice for Mexican drug cartels. (credit:Getty Images)
Helped create today's drug cartels(19 of20)
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The U.S. funded the Guatemalan military during the 1960s and 1970s anti-insurgency war, despite awareness of widespread human rights violations. Among the recipients of U.S. military funding and training were the Kaibiles, a special force unit responsible for several massacres. Former Kaibiles have joined the ranks of the Zetas drug cartel. (credit:AP)
Pushes trade policies that lead to unemployment(20 of20)
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One of the things that prompted millions of low-wage workers to abandon Mexico over the last two decades was the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. With NAFTA, cheap imports, particularly agricultural products, flooded the Mexican market, leaving farmers and other low-skilled workers without jobs. NAFTA is just one manifestation of free trade policies pushed in Washington that often have adverse effects in Latin American countries. Former President Bill Clinton acknowledged as much after Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake, saying that opening up the Haitian market to cheap U.S. rice "may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. ... I had to live every day with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did, nobody else." (credit:Getty Images: Demonstrators carry an oversized replica of a corn cob to protest the lowering of tariffs due to NAFTA.)
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