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DES MOINES, Iowa – Speaking to Democratic activists at a fundraising dinner here on Saturday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa lashed out at the Republican Party and said a Mitt Romney presidency would halt progress won under President Barack Obama.
"Today, between the Tea Partiers, the climate change deniers, the birthers and the flat-earthers, I hardly recognize the Republican Party anymore," Villaraigosa said, telling the crowd that as a mayor he has sought to work across party lines.
"Republicans used to stand for something,” he said. “And now they just stand in the way."
Villaraigosa was in Des Moines to headline the Iowa Democrats' Jefferson Jackson dinner, the state party's annual marquee fundraising event.
In an interview, he called the invitation a great honor. Past keynoters have included other Democrats on a national trajectory, including a turn in 2007 by then-candidate Obama.
But if it seems like Villaraigosa is eyeing a White House bid, he wouldn't say.
"My aspiration right now is to get the president elected," he told NBC News.
Villaraigosa will be term-limited next year in Los Angeles and said he wants to "finish strong."
Though he supported Hillary Clinton for president in 2008, he has since emerged as a visible surrogate for President Obama.
In September, he served as chairman of the Democratic National Convention, helping to raise the profile of the Hispanic community at a time when both parties are battling over the country's largest-growing demographic.
Villaraigosa said during the interview that he predicted Obama would win more than 70 percent of the Hispanic vote in August – a time when the president, though still enjoying an advantage, was polling in the low 60s.
"I still maintain that when it's all said and done, Latinos will vote overwhelmingly for President Obama," Villaraigosa said Saturday.
He cited Republican opposition to the DREAM act, which would provide a path to citizenship for children who moved to the United States illegally as children, and which he said Republicans say is a "handout."
Asked about Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, the rising Republican star who makes frequent references to faith, family and free market principles – ideas that some conservatives say will lead Hispanics to the Republican Party – Villaraigosa was polite but said the GOP has "gone so far to the right."
"I have a lot of respect for him," Villaraigosa said of Rubio. "But that's not the point of view reflected in the Latino vote."
(Rubio has said the Republican Party needs to soften on immigration, and has proposed alternative legislation which would not include the DREAM Act's pathway to citizenship.)
While Villaraigosa called for moderation from the right, he was outspoken in his defense of the broad reforms enacted by the Obama administration that Republicans have called divisive and have pledged to undo.
During his speech, he called the election a decision on the country's "fundamental direction."
"What people don't realize about those first two years with Nancy Pelosi and Democratic majority in the House and Senate, and President Obama," he said, "it actually was the most productive congress since the Johnson administration."
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Los Angeles mayor Villaraigosa needs more latino gangs in his city, more crime, more illegal votesr to keep him in place. The same goes to democrats, as they committed voting fraud in 2008 Obama election.
What voter fraud? Oh yeah....it didn't happen. LIAR.
What is the difference between "Illegal Alien and Emigrant"? Wait I think I have an answer. Illegal is a key word here I think. Why would this mayor and others be supporting people breaking the law? I take my hat off to the true emigrants of the USA. They are what built this great nation. Illegal (anything) is what is destroying it now. It is the same I think with the birth right law. If you are born here Illegally then you to are an Illegal alien. You can not pick and choose what laws you wish to enforce.
"Progress on immigration" ????!!!
It is obvious by "progress" you mean opening up the floodgates to Mexico and South America and just letting people swarm thorough the US until all our jobs are gone, until our country starts to look like theirs. It is pattently obvious that if the Mexican and South American cultures were anything to be proud of, then they would use that pride to make their countries better instead of making ours look worse.
What's the matter, 'gregor'? You suck at your job so bad you're afraid a Mexican is going to take it?
No, but if they bring us all down to the level of poverty their countries enjoy none of our jobs are giong to matter.
Liberals will say anything in order to scare people.
Boo. Go away.
Immigration is the only thing the Republicans have gotten (a little) right. Immigration has been at historically high levels for 30 years. Our population has skyrocketed and the percentage of foreign-born is at the highest ever.
Everyone wants to come to America. But there are more poor people born every year in the world than live in the U.S. today.
Yet the only options discussed are things like the DREAM act which will only INCREASE immigration.
When our population is projected to hit 1/2 a billion in our lifetimes and we have water shortages in wet places like the southeast. It's time to rethink our unsustainable immigration policies.
You've missed the other half of the discussion. We've been deporting more people than ever. DREAM is a part of that stradegy to control immigration and encourage the children of undocumented immigrants to keep their nose clean.
If you know that no matter, you will be deported if caught, you have few reasons not to be a gangbanger.
If citizenship is in your future and you won't be punished for the mistakes of your parents provided you act like you have some sense, you have a reason to focus on education, work and service to this country.
Resources are finite, especially natural resources.
New York is already sending its human feces out as fertilizer to other states. The citizens of those states are, for the most part, unaware that their elected representatives have agreed to accept this human feces as fertilizer for food crops, accepting the word of the science community that it has been sterilized enough to prevent contamination and harm to the food crops.
Gee, wonder why we have had so many illnesses and deaths caused by contaminated crops? Wonder how many other mega-cities export their feces that their water treatment plants can't handle due to over crowding, especially in places like California?
Sure, open up immigration to more illiterate unskilled people who breed like rabbits. What's the harm?
One man's trash is another man's treasure. As disgusting as it sounds, it also sounds like a practical solution to problems in 2 communities. We call that a win win.
Unfortunately, our current conservative movement believes that everything should be zero sum. That's caused inimaginable gridlock in government. I hope for the days when we demand functioning government not winning government.
Your ignorance is showing. DREAM specifically says, you must be educated, seeking education or willing to serve in our military before citizenship is considered.
I don't understand why people lie so easily to make a point. We're all entitled to our opinions but it's possible to work from a common set of facts instead of lying just to make a point.
I am talking about those who want to keep allowing the illegal alien flood to pour across the Southern border, bringing the uneducated people who don't speak English and do all those jobs the media is fond of saying Americans won't do.
They do not have skills, and when they are hired in factories at those low wages that keep the wages down for American workers, they have to be trained for the jobs they do. Nothing I said was a lie.
And I am not talking about "trash" I am talking about feces, sh!t, defecation, and human waste, the most dangerous contaminant that can touch a food supply.
Not really, the Bush administration deported 2X the number of illegals the Obama administration has. Also, Obama has offered 2X more illegals "Deferred Action" status and the ability to apply for work permits than he has deported.
Who are the people who want this? Please enlighten us.
You obviously don't know what we use for fertilizer now.
Your logic only works if you compare both Bush terms. Obama has deported more people than either Bush term.
He's also spent our money twice as fast!!!
Who are the people who want this? Please enlighten us.
As you very well know, any city that offers sanctuary and any politician or activist group who advocates amnesty for illegal aliens.
And since you keep asking questions to which you already know the answers I am disengaging from dialogue with you, except to say on the subject of using human excrement for fertilizer, that that is something the people of this country should have input on.
If Muslims can stop the entire prison system in the US from serving pork products then the rest of us should be able to have a say in whether or not we want to eat food grown with human excrement, regardless of how it has been sanitized.
You call DREAM "amnesty" which it obviously isn't. You know nobody is calling for completely open borders but you'll keep pushing this lie because you can't hold extreme views if you don't paint your opponent as extreme first.
You're absolutely right. Discuss it, but trying to use it as political talking point when (if true) we don't know how it's being used:
Is it used in crops for human consumption?
Is it sanitary?
Is it effective?
Is it cost effective?
The earlier post was a perfect example of conservatives drawing a conclusion then trying to make the facts fit the conclusion. I suggest we answer the questions, then draw a conclusion.
Your Muslim point is another conservative lie that's been way overblown.
But that's all you guys have.....Liberal want completely open borders and people to eat human sh!t food and no pork anywhere. Again, because discussing the issues without the extremism limits your ability to be extremists.
The State of California is rapidly going broke and can't keep their own affairs in order all because of the politicians like him pandering to every special interest group coming down the pike. I don't think too many other people in the country really care or listen to what the mayor thinks.
Villaraigosa is a bag of Liberal Brain Fart Wind.........He needs to take care of the enormous issues of illegals in LA-LA-Land. But, he can't. They are related to him. His words are "coyote" yelps, encouraging more and more illegals to cross the border and come to LA. Here's a solution to this twits' idiocy.....Allow California to secede from the UNION of the United States of American and be annexed by Mexico. Guarantee you that Mexico would turn THAT offer down.....CALIFORNIA is BANKRUPT , both morally and fiscally....due to idiotic and irresponsible LIBERAL Policies. Want to see how the U.S. looks under 4 more wasted years of Obama??? Look no further than the land of idiots.....CALIFORNIA!!!!! Hell, Greece looks GOOD compared to the GOLDEN (? yeh, RIGHT) State.
....tell that phony liar Villagriagosa if America were not illegally invaded by Hispanics none of these defense of America tactics would ever need to happen.....f' him...
Why do we have so many illegals here? They came to build those McMansions for the Real Estate Developers who bankrupted the country. Cheap labor, paid in cash off the books, no benefits, no Taxes withheld because they didn't really exist. Same Real Developers, like Jeb Bush and the other Perry in Texas, who made millions off those sub-prime loans going into their pockets. Anyone remember the bumper stickers that were on the building contractors pickup trucks (Bush/Cheney).
The GOP is a party of Hypocrites. Now the money is being made selling the Drug cartels McMansions, AK-47s that were meant for the Afghan Military, Race Horses, and investments in shopping malls.
We can't have illegals!! I'm running for office, for Pete's sake!!
Gosh!
LOL @ Mexican Mitt.
In order for the Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to go beyond talking the talk and walking the walk on illegal immigration, the funding for schooling, heathcare and deporation cost of all illegals should come out of Mayor's Villaraigosa's own pocket instead of the hardworking taxpayers. It is easy to "blast" others for not subsidizing Illegal Aliens enough when one is not paying for their illegal stay.
Kurt..., and the taxpayers can't afford to round them all up and send back either. Get real, there is no easy solution. The contractors and business who profited off them are the problem we can do something about.
How many U.S. Army and Marine divisions would it take to really secure our southern border??
If you were in a boat at sea, and you were taking on seawater, what should you do first?? You should fix the leak (seal the border), then bail out all that unwanted water, (Begin the mass deportations). Otherwise you will sink. (Go broke).
Sounds real easy!! We just need some boats now.
If the solution was really that easy, don't you think it would have been tried already? Simplistic answers and faulty analogies are not helpful or useful here.
Out of the mouth of a politician who has been under investigation by LA City Ethics commission every quarter he has been mayor, except the first. He had to lay the ground work after all. He was even convicted and fined. Shoot, he'll fit in just fine with the rest of the politicians in Washington. He's already a practiced liar.
Hey NBC can we get quotes from someone in the Water Department too? Talk about dragging the bottom to find quotes bashing republicans in a bigoted way! Maybe someone in the Zoning Department in Witchita Falls could be quoted next?
SOS......nothing new here....same ole democratic talking points. Mr. Mayor, answer me this.....why didn't Obama pass his immigration bill in the first year AS HE PROMISED??? I will answer the question myself, because YOU were not anywhere near his priority, much, much further down the list of priorities. Sorry to tell you the truth, but it is what it is!!!
This Mayor is clueless! The Democrats controlled the House and the Senate for two years and did nothing about immigration other than run their mouths. Now the Democrats are blaming the Republicans for their failures. Go figure! The Democrats are blaming someone else for their failures. Sound familiar?
I don't care what anyone says, Obama is done in one. Romney/Ryan will win by a landslide.
The Tea Party is a middle-class movement of people who want limited government, less spending, less debt, low taxes, and the repeal of Obamacare. The Democrats seem to have a problem with the Tea Party. I wonder why?
Baggers are ignorant people that want instant, painless fixes. They have a problem with reality. I wonder why?
At what cost and to whom?
What "progress" has Obama made on immigration? He hasn't addressed the issue his entire term. What's his plan?
Ideally, BLANKET AMNESTY ! Real Governance is "just too haaaaard"
So I guess 'Mexican Mitt's' spray tan didn't work on the latinos, huh?
... Maybe you should ask a Native American Indian how they like the immigration laws of this country ....
... they are people of colour too ...
... Romney is NOT TO TRUSTED ...
... OBAMA 2012 ...
So please remind me why Obama is to be trusted......Obama said in the year of "I Think I Am God" #1, that he would fix immigration. We are now in year #4 of "I Think I Am God" and he has not addressed it yet. Remind me again why he is to be trusted???
"I have a lot of respect for him," Villaraigosa said of Rubio. "But that's not the point of view reflected in the Latino vote."
The Latino point of view is to turn the US into a Spanish speaking country. Look south of our border to see how well that's worked out...
You have hit the nail square on the head soazDan!
Antonio Vallaraigosa, as well as his Lt. Gov.- Cruz Bustamante , cut their political teeth in a La Raza group called : Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlen (MEChA) ! MEChA is outspokenly against any form of assumilation ! Instead their position calls for 'retaking' "....territories of the Southwest, brutally stolen from the Mexican People"! What are these "territories"? Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, and parts of Washington State!
The organizations moto: For La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada! ( for the race everything. Outside the race nothing), is defended by Miguel Perez , " The ultimate ideaology is the liberation of Aztlan. Communism would be the closest. Once Aztlan is established, ethnic clensing would commence, non-Chicanos would be expelled" Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and most of these clueless Progressive Ideologues, in their desperate attempt to buy votes, if they are successful, will find themselves thrown out!
" The shaft of the arrow was feathered with one of the Eagles own plumes! We often give our enemies the means to our own destruction" Aesop
"Mark my words, those immigrants pose a real threat to our way of life." Pocahontas
Not much of a student of History we see!
Oh Goodie, yet another racist Progressive , using a Straw man arguement to encourage even further ignorance of the provisions of the Constitution!
Oh goody, another ignorant conservative picking and choosing which parts of the constitution to follow and deciding for the rest of us how to interpret it.
Your assertion that I'm "picking and choosing which parts of the Constitution to follow", implies there are parts that I wouldn't follow.. Would you care to share which parts they might be?
The Constitution requires little, in any "interpretation" . It lays out in concise language the path of citizenship for any Legal Immigrant!
As to my "ignorance", what facts do you use to support that assertion? Are you aware of Villaraigosa's background?
The US Consitution DOES NOT lay out any path to citizenship. It simply says the Constitution applies to all citizens. There's the ignorance.
I sure am, both good and bad. And since he hasn't committed rape, murder or pedophilia, I can gauge the man based on his entire record. Not just the parts I agree with.
We've already established that reading comprehension isn't your strong suit since you believe the Constitution lays out a "path to citizenship". Even though most of us know from history, that the founding fathers view of citizenship was a birth rite and only for whites.
I didn't imply anything. I said you were picking and choosing the parts to follow (NOTE: I said nothing about "not following"). When you choose to read into the statements of others and the Constitution, you prove yourself a fool.
Really, Article 1 , Section 8, Clause 4 seems to assign the responsibility to the Congress! The Congress has exercised this mandate with The Immigration and Nationality Act. EGRO a Constitutional path to citizenship!
According to linguistics the inclusion of the word "choose" is, in and of itself, an implication!
Can we then expect that you share Mr. Vallaraigosa's goal of Mexicos' annexation of our States?
Lastly why do you feel compelled to include your narcissistic attempt to intimidate ?
Over the last three years, the Obama Administration has dedicated unprecedented resources to secure our borders, taken important steps to make our interior and worksite enforcement smarter and more effective, and made improvements to the legal immigration system. And in June of 2012, the Department of Homeland Security announced a new process aimed at making the nation’s immigration policy more fair and more efficient by focusing its enforcement resources on the removal of individuals who pose a national security or public safety risk -- by removing the threat of deportation for young people who came to the U.S. as children and are low enforcement priorities.
Windy - You forgot that part where the Obama administration gave the finger to the 23 million under-employed and un-employed American citizen workers by granting deferred action and work permits to millions of illegal aliens in exchanged for the Latino/Hispanic vote.
Romney "suggested in January that illegal immigrants should “self-deport,” meaning that they would leave the country of their own accord if they were unable to find jobs or obtain driver’s licences. He later backtracked from his comments and told a Latino audience at a campaign event in Florida in June that he favored a long-term, comprehensive solution to illegal immigration." -- The Washington Post
In other words, forget what I said about deportation, I want the Hispanic vote. Mitt flips again.
Excellent example of Parroting of left-wing talking points! Totally ignoring the fact that not only does he encourage illegal immigration by the granting of ammnesty to a few million, but by aggressively advertising the wonderful safty-net programs available to them once they have successfully crossed the border, IN MEXICO itself! As the addage goes " His actions speak so loudly, i can't hear a word he says"!
The Obama administration met with Mexican officials and held other events to discuss enrollment in food stamps and similar programs roughly 30 times since President Obama took office, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack revealed in a recent letter to Congress.
They were among 151 documented meetings and events held since 2004, when the United States and Mexico first started partnering on food-stamp awareness. That partnership, though, has raised alarm with Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who is concerned the collaboration amounts to a vehicle for the USDA to pressure people onto the food-stamp rolls -- in this case, noncitizen immigrants from Mexico.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/01/vilvilsack-reacts-to-republican-concerns-about-mexican-nutrition-awareness/#ixzz2A3Ec3UWk+
It should be easy to do the math. 151 meetings since 2004 minus 30 for the Obama administration means there were 121 similar meetings prior to the Obama administration. You guys don't even attack Obama's record very well. And notice, this article is from the left wing talking point headquarters....Fox News.
So far as amnesty, children shouldn't be held responsible for the mistakes of their parents. Offering legal work status (not citizenship) for those who follow our laws, get educated and/or defend our nation is an encouragement. And very smart policy for the US.
BearDown
Nothing in your post explains the aggressive advertising of our SNAP program in a Foreign Country!
"...the president has pursued an aggressive policy of deporting [illegal immigrants], especially those who break U.S. laws. Since 2009, his administration has deported about 1.5 million illegal immigrants, more than the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
More than half of the 397,000 who were deported in 2011 had been convicted of drug offenses or crimes such as drunken driving. Others were repeat border-crossers from Mexico or were deemed threats to national security." -- The Washington Post
That's a start. Then you ask "what do we do about the rest?"
1. Go door to door checking papers.
2. Provide a reasonable way for good, law abiding, hard working people to stay in the country.
Those are your only options folks. There's no middle ground here. If you allow the GOP to win, they will pass AZ style laws and that will end up with neighbors reporting neighbors out of spite or misplaced patriotism, wasted police and ICE resources and more violence in the streets.
DHS Statistics show that the Bush administration has deported more illegals than the Obama administration even with the Obama admistration changing how they cook the books in counting deportations.
But here are some facts about the POTUS
Obama is the 1st POTUS with illegal alien relatives evading deportation orders
Obama has granted more illegal aliens the ability to apply for deferred action status and work permits, than he has deported.
I welcome the day that Feds come to my door to check my papers. I have no idea where my birth certificate is.
Wonder why Obama's Uncle Onyango was not deported? Not only is he a drunk driver but he is an illegal alien who has been evading a deportation order for over 20 years.
20 years ago Barack Obama was in no position to do anything to help or harm his uncle. He violated an order to return to Kenya 20 years ago. After he was picked up for drunk driving and retained by immigration, he was later released and has been ordered to regularly check in with immigration officials. He is now in the process of appealing his deportation order. His case is not rare or unusual. You can make whatever political hay you wish to make out of it, but Onyango is going through the usual legal process and there is no evidence that the White House has done anything to interfere. If you have any real facts to suggest otherwise, I'd like to see them.
Comrade ObaMao’s stooges cheated (as in everything else this despicable regime is involved in) by including voluntary returns in the total number of deportations. Voluntary Removals or Voluntary Returns don’t count as deportations: “…[T]he person who leaves under voluntary departure can return to the US legally and is treated as if he was never deported, a much better alternative to deportation. To qualify for the privilege of being granted voluntary departure by an Immigration Judge or by the Immigration & Naturalization Service [now USCIS or DHS], one must meet the following criteria…” See
Also see: “The reason this matters is that, as Rep. Smith determined, the administration has started counting certain "returns" as "removals" in order to artificially inflate the numbers and create a "record level" of deportations. Specifically, those illegals caught by the Border Patrol who are shuttled to a different town along the border before they're returned are being dishonestly counted as deportations.” Link
OOOps! Can't post links here, evidently. Use Google to verify.
I post links all the time. If you're told that you have to leave and you leave, you were deported.
You guys aren't good at attacking Obama's record. I don't know any reasonable person who would say it's not a deportation if someone got a letter and left as opposed to having armed agents show up at your door.
Windy - Obama has done everything in his power to stop deportations. The increase in deportations is on the part of the boarder patrol which Obama has stated publicly that he wished he could stop but is unable to do so under the law. One illegals get past the boarder patrol, he has given them a free ride. Like others have pointed out. If he were so hard on illegals when why is his aunt and uncle still here. He cooks the books and exaggerates the statistics, claims credit out one side of his mouth while disclaiming it out the other, and you guys swallow his crap hook, line and sinker.
When did Obama say he wished deportations could stop? In what context? You can't answer these questions because you're lying out of both sides of your mouth.
His relatives negotiated their deal with Immigration before Obama had any control. We all know this to be true so picking on his relatives is just a talking point.
What did he do to "cook the books"?
More lies and platitudes from the right.
They broke the law when they crossed the border without papers. What is so hard with this concept? This administration is allowing people to stay in this country, by executive order, not actual laws. All hail King Obama. As far as the LA Mayor, you are almost bankrupt along with your whole state. Get your house in order before you spout off about other peoples records.
I suggest the same for the GOP and this current conservative movement.
@ Bear - He specifically said so in an interview done with a Latino journalist. I forget now if it was a radio stop, tv show or just print. You can google and see the transcript. It was pretty clear what he said and what he meant.
Da mayor shouldn't worry. Brown Power will soon dictate the course of this nation. The way the birth rate is going.
Oh lovely.... another gang-banger-infested crime and corruption-bloated chicken shiat-encrusted barnyard like the one south of the border. What a vile culture.