Jose Diaz-Balart, host of MSNBC’s The Rundown, sat down with President Obama for an exclusive interview that aired during his Wednesday morning broadcast. The discussion touched on several key issues including immigration reform and the liberal MSNBC host pushed the president to expand his executive action to cover more illegal immigrants.
Speaking to Obama, Diaz-Balart wondered “about the future. Are you actively looking into the possibility of further executive actions that could maybe help the people that didn't qualify this time in the near future?”
The segment began with the MSNBC host asking President Obama “you said you didn't have the authority to expand, for example, mitigation of deportations. Removing the issue of politics aside, what legally changed?”
After allowing the president to give lengthy answers on the legality of his executive actions without challenging him Diaz-Balart began to press Obama from the left on possibly expanding his immigration executive action:
Have you thought about or what you would say to the people, the hundreds of thousands of people that would not have had their families separated had you acted earlier. Hundreds of thousands.
Predictably, the MSNBC host never considered the importance of making sure immigration laws are enforced and instead focused on Republicans who are challenging the president's unilateral action in court:
Let's talk about fear for a minute. Fear, the millions of people living in the United States without documents, could feel fear getting picked up and being deported. The fear of many people that register with the federal government when there are 20 states that are suing the United States of America. And when Congress, Congressman Yoho, passed a bill that would deport dreamers. How to you mitigate fear when there's a three year period for these 5 million people and people don't see a very rosie picture?
Jose Diaz-Balart has a history of using his MSNBC program to promote immigration reform from the left. On July 21 [1], the MSNBC host broadcasted his show from the left-win La Raza convention but failed to mention they gave him an award for his activism. On November 17 [2], Diaz-Balart warned that the GOP has “got the be very careful” in how it responded to the president’s immigration executive action.
See relevant transcript below.
MSNBC
The Rundown with Jose Diaz-Balart
December 10, 2014
JOSE DIAZ-BALART: But now more from my one-on-one interview with President Obama and his immigration action, action we have covered extensively here on this broadcast. It’s why he was here in Nashville yesterday making his third city stop to push his immigration action. I asked him about the timing of his decision and what has changed over the course of many of our conversations over the years on this issue when he told me he wasn't king. There was only so much he could do. [To Obama] Over and over again when I’ve had the opportunity to chat with you, you said I'm not king, I’m President of the United States and you said--
BARACK OBAMA: Still not.
DIAZ-BALART: I understand that but you said you didn't have the authority to expand, for example, mitigation of deportations. Removing the issue of politics aside, what legally changed?
OBAMA: Well, you know what I think changed is that having done what we did with DACA with the dream kids, my argument was not that we did not have some additional authority. My argument was that I did not have the authority to simply not deport, as you'll recall, oftentimes that was the demand that was made on me and there's going to be continuing even after the actions I take some deportations, we're going it deport criminals. We're going deport felonies. We're going prioritize our resources.
And at the border, if people come here illegally, then we're going still remove them. There's still going to be a focus on people who have just gotten in and I think it's important for all your viewers to understand that the new executive actions we’ve taken apply to people who have been here for five years and who have U.S. children or children who are legal permanent residents, in that case you can register and you can be assured you won't be deported. More broadly, we're going to make sure that families, people who are working and responsible in their communities are not prioritized for deportations, so the likelihood of their deportations are going to be much lower. But at the border regions as well as when it comes to criminals, we're still going to be making sure that we enforce those laws.
But what had happened was throughout this last year and a half, we saw a convergence of Democrat, Republican, independent voices saying this is the right thing to do. We got a good Senate bill. All we needed was a vote in the House. I gave Speaker Boehner a year and a half to try to get that passed. I think personally he wanted to do it, he couldn't get his caucus to go along. And at that point, we had essentially exhausted the possibilities in this Congress of getting something done. My hope is that the next Congress-
DIAZ-BALART: Political side–the legal side, right? There's political side and then there’s the authority side.
OBAMA: Well, the authority side, as I said, we always knew that we could reprioritize some of our enforcement powers not to simply eliminate deportations. That would be something that only Congress could do. But what we could do is change given the limited resources we have who we're going after and where our resources are deployed.
DIAZ-BALART: Let's talk a little bit about the future. Are you actively looking into the possibility of further executive actions that could maybe help the people that didn't qualify this time in the near future?
OBAMA: You know I asked the Office of Legal Counsel to give me their best ruling on how much legal authority I have. And we stretched as far as we could,. You know, my hope is that this becomes a spurred action by Congress. If not, it's certainly going to be a conversation going into the next presidential election and the next set of congressional elections. And I think there are a lot of not just Democrats but thoughtful Republicans out there who understand that they want to be on the side of history that welcomes people who are already here who stand to make a tremendous contribution to our society.
And that we're not going to continue a process in which we hypocritically claim that these folks have no path to get legal at the same time as we know that they're working in our restaurants, working in our fields picking fruit, working in our hotels where we stay, cleaning up our hotel rooms. I think the majority of Americans want strong borders, but they also recognize people who have been here for awhile they deserve a chance to get out of the shadows, and be held accountable by paying taxes.
DIAZ-BALART: Have you thought about or what you would say to the people, the hundreds of thousands of people that would not have had their families separated had you acted earlier. Hundreds of thousands.
OBAMA: You know, now what you're getting into is the nature of being president, which is I also think about the millions of people who got sick before I got health care passed. I think about all the time the work that is left undone. But my job is not to look backwards. We have taken a step that stands to benefit 4 million people to give them the capacity to get out of the shadows and to move forward. And we still have the possibility of helping a lot more people if we get legislation passed.
DIAZ-BALART: Let's talk about fear for a minute. Fear, the millions of people living in the United States without documents, could feel fear getting picked up and being deported. The fear of many people that register with the federal government when there are 20 states that are suing the United States of America. And when Congress, Congressman Yoho, passed a bill that would deport dreamers. How to you mitigate fear when there's a three year period for these 5 million people and people don't see a very rosie picture?
OBAMA: Well, actually, number one, they should take the example of their kids. Because if you think about all those DACA kids that signed up, understanding that was temporary but they proclaimed we're Americans, we need to be seen and heard and we want to make a contribution to this society. They're all signed up and I have a great deal of confidence that they’re going to end up making those contributions to this society. As I was saying in the town hall earlier, we need now to register people who are qualified and, if they register they're paying taxes. They’re going through a criminal background check.
The American people believe that if you have done things the right way, then you shouldn't be punished for it. You're not going to see Democrats or Republicans who suggest that we're going treat worse the people who did the right thing compared to those folks who don't register, don't go through a criminal background check and haven't been paying their taxes. So, if anything, it's more likely those who go through this process are probably going to be in a better position to take advantage of the legislation that I believe will ultimately be passed because it’s the right thing to do and it’s what the American people think should be done.
DIAZ-BALART: The president expressing confidence in his executive action, but does the public agree? Do the five million immigrants agree? We'll frame the debate next.
— Jeffrey Meyer is a News Analyst at the Media Research Center. Follow Jeffrey Meyer on Twitter. [3]