President Barack Obama should be "bold" and act "quickly" on an executive order to overhaul the nation's immigration system, Rep. Luis Gutierrez told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
The immigration issue has lagged since
Obama first promised he would pursue reforms when he ran for president in 2008, saying he would urge Congress to pass a bill during his first year in office.
This year,
the president delayed twice his pledge to use executive order to make changes to immigration, and has now indicated he would take action by year's end, though an announcement could be forthcoming as early as next week.
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"The president should act in a bold manner, in a generous manner, and he should act quickly and swiftly," the Illinois Democrat said Thursday.
Gutierrez said he had "stood with Republicans" when they said immigration reforms had to be done piecemeal, but maintained "every time we set the menu, every time we set the table, they walked away."
Though Speaker of the House John Boehner and other lawmakers have warned Obama he would poison the well if he acted independently on immigration, Gutierrez claimed it was Republicans who were "poisoning the well" by their delays on the issue.
Democratic losses in this year's midterm elections might not have been so pronounced if there hadn't been so much political maneuvering around immigration reforms, Gutierrez suggested.
"So, what did we get? We lost the Senate, anyway, and infuriated, angered, disillusioned lots of voters that might well have come out to vote in Florida, in the Florida election, and in the Colorado election. Not to talk about other elections that might have been close," he said. "What you get is a cynicism of the public when you put politics ahead of good public policy."
Gutierrez said Republicans also hindered action on immigration legislation by linking it to fears of illegal immigrants bringing Ebola and crime into the U.S., reports of Islamic State (ISIS) militants crossing into the country from Mexico, and suggesting immigrants would take jobs from American citizens.
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