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‘Qué Pasa’ in Immigration: Obama on Telemundo; DREAM Aftermath; ICE Memo; Latino Vote

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In the second part of his interview with Telemundo, President Barack Obama declared that since he’s not the king or emperor of the United States, he can’t unilaterally change immigration law. After Tuesday’s vote blocked addition of the DREAM Act to a Senate bill, Republicans who voted against it are being targeted by the press — but some are talking to Senator Richard Durbin about a version of the bill they might support.

Obama on Telemundo. EFE’s article on the interview quotes Obama saying that “my heart breaks when I hear stories about the separation of families. I have a family and I can imagine how I would feel if I were separated from my daughters. There’s a powerful human element in this issue that is not going to go away.” Nonetheless, he stressed that he is not “the king or the emperor of the United States“ and he cannot “make laws unilaterally,” but merely continue to persuade “the nation and its democratically-elected representatives who have the power to change the law,” the agency reports.

DREAM aftermath. El Diario-La Prensa (New York) follows up on its “Dream killers” editorial from yesterday with a second editorial called “Enemies of the DREAM Act,” listing the Republicans who voted against Tuesday’s motion to allow debate on the Defense authorization bill and the potential inclusion of the DREAM Act. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL), lead sponsor of the DREAM Act, says that many of those Republicans now want to “talk” about how to produce a version of the DREAM Act they would support.

El Diario-La Prensa talks to young people who would have benefited from the DREAM Act, who say they feel “taken advantage of.” Francisco Curiel, an 18-year-old born in Mexico, tells the newspaper:

“we feel used. They know the elections are coming and they always support a bill, and so you support them for the Senate, for Congress, and when the new Congress comes in, they simply act as if they haven’t been listening to us at all.”