The immigrant community is “disappointed” and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was not given advanced notice that the White House would delay executive action on immigration, California Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez said Monday.
“We should be getting it done now instead of after the election. Yes, of course we’re disappointed with the president as the entire immigrant communities, all communities are disappointed with the House of Representatives for refusing to bring this up,” Sanchez said on CNN Monday morning.
She added that the Hispanic Caucus — which presented the Obama administration with recommendations for issues that the administration could “fix” — was not informed of White House’s decision to delay the action before it was announced.
“There were things that were very practical on this list and the president said he would address it with us, he would choose from the list, he would help us with that and in fact he has now delayed it until after the election — we had no heads up on that,” she said.
Sanchez stressed that 60 or 70 thousand families would be affected by possible deportation “between now and after the election.”
The California congresswoman, however, placed the blame for inaction on immigration reform on Republican shoulders.
“While the President has disappointed the real reality is that these House Republicans have refused to work with us to move a bill that would solve this issue,” she said, explaining the message she plans to bring to immigrant communities.