Al Sharpton, make some room to your left. The Reverend Sharpton now has a competitor for the title “demagogue in chief” of American politics. Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois, Congress’s most outspoken advocate for immigration amnesty, appeared on MSNBC after President Obama announced his executive actions and was asked by Rachel Maddow why Republicans were opposing Obama. Gutierrez’s reasoned response was: “If you want to make it about people from Latin America, if you want to use xenophobia, if you want to use bigotry and hatred and [the president], then you want to mix up the facts.”
Gutierrez has followed up sound-bite missiles like that with something akin to a victory lap through America’s urban areas. He tells immigrants it is “my responsibility, now that [Obama] has done the executive action, to sign up as many people as possible.” That means getting them to pre-register for the time next year when applications will be available for what is likely to lead to amnesty.
But Gutierrez makes clear that his ultimate goal is to put as many illegal immigrants as possible on a path to U.S. citizenship.
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