President Obama blasted Republicans in the House of Representatives for their stubborn refusal to deal with the issue of immigration reform when he attended a fundraiser on Thursday outside San Diego. Tickets for the event, which was held at the home of Qulacomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs to benefit the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, ranged from $10,000 to $34,000.
“Republicans so far at least haven’t been willing to step up,” Obama noted. “To their credit some in the Senate have, but the House Republicans have stubbornly refused to even allow a vote on the issue.” Qualcomm has been one of the most aggressive supporters of immigration reform, saying that it would be better able to attract and retain highly-skilled workers from overseas if the reform went through.
“A majority of American people think we should reform a broken immigration system that can help reduce our deficits, create more growth, create more innovation, and even as we are securing our borders and making sure we’re a nation of laws, we’re also reminding ourselves we’re a nation of immigrants,” Obama commented.
The remarks about immigration were part of a broader indictment of Congress by the president, who noted that Congress has completely failed to deal with the concerns shared by middle-class families and that its inaction merely leads more and more people to conclude that there is little point in them getting involved in politics at all.