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MIAMI Likening immigration reform to the great civil rights movements in U.S. history, President Barack Obama vowed during a brief visit to Miami on Wednesday to veto any legislation undoing his executive order protecting from deportation up to 5 million people who are in the country illegally.

"In the short term, if Mr. (Mitch) McConnell, the leader of the Senate, and the speaker of the House, John Boehner, want to have a vote on whether what I'm doing is legal or not, they can have that vote," Obama said, almost daring congressional leaders to challenge him. "I will veto that vote because I'm absolutely confident that what we're doing is the right thing to do."

His veto threat was met with rousing applause from the friendly audience assembled at Florida International University, where Obama taped an hourlong town hall-style meeting hosted by Miami-based Telemundo and sister network MSNBC. The event, moderated by bilingual anchor Jose Diaz-Balart, was later nationally televised on both networks.

McConnell, of Kentucky, wants a stand-alone bill blocking Obama's 2014 actions, which were supposed to take effect this week but have been stalled by a Texas federal judge. Boehner, of Ohio, is waiting for the Senate's move, after House Republicans passed a budget for the Homeland Security Department that wouldn't pay for the president's plan.

Obama defied Republican leaders while trying to persuade undocumented immigrants - who would be covered by his actions but are now in limbo - that his administration has not given up.

"We have appealed very aggressively. We're going to be as aggressive as we can," he said. "In the meantime, what we said to Republicans is, 'Instead of trying to hold hostage funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which is so important for our national security, fund that and let's get on with actually passing comprehensive immigration reform.'"

Republicans characterized Obama's Miami visit as a strictly political move intent not on resolving a problem but on bashing the GOP to Hispanic voters, a crucial bloc in Florida and other swing states.

"President Obama tells Americans he wants to work with Republicans, but his actions don't live up to his rhetoric," Republican National Committee spokeswoman Ali Pardo said in a statement. "And as the president struggles to defend his executive action that was blocked by a federal court, his partisan campaign stops aren't making things better."

There is little chance that Congress will act during the remainder of Obama's final term, with the 2016 presidential campaign season already underway and Republicans angered that the president has wielded executive authority in what they consider an overreach. Obama nevertheless insisted: "I haven't given up passing it while I'm president."

Like other Spanish-language interviewers have done in high-profile settings, Diaz-Balart reminded Obama that he could have made an immigration push during his first two years in office, when Democrats controlled the House and Senate.

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In Miami, Obama vows to veto any bill blocking his executive immigration action

US: Protests hit judge #39;s decision on Obama immigration reform
Immigration rights activists in the United States are outraged over a federal judge #39;s decision to suspend implementation of President Barack Obama #39;s executiv...

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US: Protests hit judge's decision on Obama immigration reform - Video

Full Video: Obama #39;s Immigration Town Hall | msnbc
Watch the full video of President Barack Obama #39;s town hall on immigration reform, hosted by msnbc #39;s Jose Diaz-Balart. Subscribe to msnbc: http://on.msnbc.c...

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Full Video: Obama's Immigration Town Hall | msnbc - Video

February 17, 2015|10:56 pm

The following essay is in response to an opinion piece that appeared in The Christian Post earlier this month entitled, White Evangelicals and Immigration Reform.

There are biblical and prudential reasons for opposing "comprehensive immigration reform," but your otherwise thoughtful article did not acknowledge them.

I concur with the statistical conclusion of Kellstedt and Hoover, that evangelicals, "white" and otherwise, largely oppose the kind of "comprehensive immigration reform" that President Obama is attempting to enforce despite the disapproval of Congress and most Americans.

In fact a 2014 Pulse pollfound that only 11% of evangelicals feel that the Biblical teaching to "love the stranger" means to offer citizenship. Most feel that "loving the stranger" means to "treat the stranger humanely while applying the rule of law." I believe that this answer is biblically informed and therefore also wise and compassionate.

Almost all evangelicals support lawful, reasonable immigration. What they oppose is lawlessness and a disregard for the rights of citizens. To reduce the sincere concerns of American evangelicals to under-educated, white Republicans, as the Feb. 6th article implies, is the kind of simplistic characterization we've come to expect from politicos, but not from friends. To the contrary, evangelicals look to the whole counsel of Scripture and the careful discernment of consequences as the most reliable sources of wisdom for human living and cultural thriving. Consider just five (5) points:

1 Scripture: The Bible's teaching does not equate "welcoming the stranger" with our emerging 2015 scenario of anonymous entry through open borders, disregard for laws and customs, blanket amnesty, and cradle-to-grave social services. This is not biblical "justice." It is unsustainable presumption and theft.

God loves us all. God teaches us to love the well-intended sojourner who comes lawfully as a blessing (the 'ger' in the Old Testament), and so we welcome and protect lawful immigration. (America is likely the most welcoming nation on the planet.) There are three other words in Scripture for foreigners to whom citizenship is not to be extended (watch Todd Wagner's sermon Declaration, or read scholar James Hoffmeier's The Immigration Crisis). We are for legal immigration, but not for lawlessness that weakens our culture.

In Scripture, we see both welcome and walls. We see welcome extended to kindred spirits, such as Ruth and Rahab. And we also see Nehemiah, upon his people's return from Babylonian exile, organizing the nation of Israel to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem that protected the nation from danger and syncretism. This allowed a repentant Israel to rebuild its faith and culture in the life-giving ways of the Lord. They did justice to the DNA, story and future of their culture and nation.

2. Political scheming:Evangelicals oppose the use of "immigration reform" as a means to advance a political agenda.

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Evangelicals For Biblical Immigration and Cultural Flourishing

February 27, 2015|8:35 am

Union members and supporters march to the Michigan State Capitol building to protest against right-to-work legislation in Lansing, Michigan December 11, 2012.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. Certain labor unions are among the strongest opponents of comprehensive immigration reform, according to experts at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

A Thursday panel called"Immigration: Can Conservatives Reach a Consensus," panel featured U.S. Congressman Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Mario Lopez of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, and Alfonso Aguilar of the American Principles Project.

In his remarks, held at a meeting room at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, Aguilar talked about the opposition unions had to certain immigration reform ideas.

"We have Democrats who don't want to see a guest worker program, because the unions don't want to see a guest worker program," said Aguilar.

Aguilar has long been critical those fellow Republicanswho have blocked reforms to the immigration system. Democrats also have anti-reform voices in their ranks, he pointed out in his Thursday remarks.

Aguilar cited the Bracero Program, which brought large numbers of Mexican guest workers to the United States that Aguilar said liberals opposed "because of the unions."

The reasoning given in part was that unions worked for the interests of their membership and saw the influx of new workers into the system as a threat.

(Photo: The Christian Post)

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Are Labor Unions an Enemy of Immigration Reform?