Posted on July 2, 2014
By Aaron KleinLost in much of the national debate about immigration reform is how Democrats ultimately stand to gain electorally with any legislation or executive action that would put the newly legalized residents on a path to voting.
In fact, in smoking-gun audio that received almost no media exposure, a former immigration adviser to President Obama once boasted granting citizenship to millions of illegal aliens would expand the "progressive" electorate and help ensure a "progressive" governing coalition for the long term.
The admission was made by Eliseo Medina, current secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU.
Medina was speaking at a June 2009 Washington conference for the liberal America's Future Now!
"We reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters," stated Medina, then the SEIU's international executive vice-president.
Medina said that in the 2008 elections, Latinos and immigrants "voted overwhelmingly for progressive candidates," with Obama winning "two out of every three voters that showed up."
"Can you imagine if we have, even the same ratio, two out of three? Can you imagine 8 million new voters who care about our issues and will be voting? We will be creating a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle."
Medina and the SEIU were top supporters of Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez's Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Bill, which sought to document up to 12 million illegal immigrants inside the U.S.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Medina and Gutierrez served on Obama's National Latino Advisory Council.
As KleinOnline reported, Obama previously boasted of consulting Medina on immigration issues.
"Before immigration debates took place in Washington, I talked with Eliseo Medina and SEIU members," Obama said in a Sept. 17, 2007, campaign address to the SEIU.
Meanwhile, Gutierrez on Tuesday urged Obama to utilize executive action to "heal" illegal aliens.
"If [Republicans] want to come back and discuss [reform], fine," Gutierrez said on MSNBC. "But in the interim period, I believe the president of the United States has already in statute, in the law, the ability to heal and put in a safe harbor millions of undocumented immigrants while the Congress of the United States finally decides it's going to take action."
via kleinonline
