White House spokesman Josh Earnest signaled Tuesday that the president’s amnesty for million of illegals will be announced very soon.
He used his Nov. 18 press conference to sideline Democrats’ calls for a delay until the GOP leaders in the House finalize the 2015 budget.
He also sketched his PR events for the Obama plan, which would invite more than 3 million of illegal immigrants, and up to 500,000 extra foreign professionals, to compete for jobs against blue-collar and white-collar Americans. The plan is so unpopular that Obama has delayed its announcement until after the November elections, in which numerous GOP candidates won while opposing the amnesty.
Several top Democrats have called for another delay until the 2015 budget is passed by Dec. 12.
They asked for a delay because a quick announcement would give the GOP caucus time to pressure GOP budget leaders to pass language that would bar spending on the amnesty.
Annual spending bills routinely include language directing or curbing spending. “It happens all the time,” Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat, told National Review. “There’s amendments saying ‘none of the funds in this appropriation bill may be spent for’ — fill in the blank,” he said.
But Earnest said the budget schedule won’t impact Obama’s timing. “My sense is that even if the president doesn’t announce anything until late in December, that will not prevent Republicans from preemptively trying to attach to the [continuing resolution] or an omnibus [budget] bill a [language] proposal to make the implementation of that executive action harder,” Earnest said.
“I don’t think that this [GOP] strategic decision… will determine the outcome” of when the president announces his plan, Earnest said.
Expectations for an early announcement rose Tuesday evening when the Washington Post reported that Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, will meet with Democratic Senators on Thursday.
Typically, McDonough has met with Democratic Senators just prior to a major policy announcement. If that pattern continues, Obama may announce the amnesty on Thursday.
However, progressives fear some Democrats up for election in 2016 will not support the amnesty, so the meeting may be designed to craft a compromise with Senate Democrats.
Obama may announce the amnesty early next week, such as Tuesday Nov. 24, partly so that the announcement will be muffled by Thanksgiving.
Few Democrats aside from outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have publicly embraced the unpopular amnesty.
Reid is up for election in 2016, and survived a strong challenge in 2010 because of support from low-income Latino voters in Nevada.
In his Tuesday press conference, Earnest also outlined plans to justify the unprecedented amnesty.
The plan would include opportunities for reporters to understand the president’s legal claim, he said.
“Once the president has made a decision and it’s a decision that’s been announced, we’ll all — Republicans and Democrats and even some reporters — all have the opportunity to evaluate whether or not those actions are consistent with the law,” he said.
“We will have some material that we can release to you related to the legal foundation of some of these decisions, but we’ll get to that when we have some announcements to make.”