Thursday on MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart,” Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) said President Barack Obama should use an executive order and grant amnesty to an estimated 5 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States because it will “quell some of the unrest” caused by “racial overtones” of anti immigration rhetoric. He said, “Latinos that are fourth, fifth generation — they see this as a civil rights issue.”
Grijalva said Obama’s amnesty, “Will quell some of the unrest that we are seeing in our communities and the racial overtones that continue to build around this issue.”
He explained, “The issue of immigration that for a while was sanitized. We just talked about immigration as a federal policy that needed to be reformed. What has happened is that more and more of the rhetoric has racial undertones and overtones and in many parts of our community, for those people of color, in particular, latinos that are fourth, fifth generation, they see this as a civil rights issue in terms of who is being demeaned and demonized by the Steve Kings of the world on the air. So the overtones countiue to grow, the anxiety continues to grow and I think administrative relief now would allow communities to have the kinda real dialogue in their communities away from the rhetoric and I hope the president can help deal with that.”
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