White House admits Obama delayed immigration reform on purpose because of midterms

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last updated 8 January 2015

In response to whether executive action on immigration would be "more politically stable" after the midterm elections, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday during a press briefing that had President Obama acted on immigration prior to Election Day, Republican candidates would have made the immigration issue "more central to their campaign." Earnest said the GOP would likely cite opposition to amnesty as a reason for their success, which Earnest said is a storyline neither the president nor anyone in the White House "wanted to contribute to."

National Review points out that the reason White House officials originally gave for the delay in immigration reform was that "the Republicans' extreme politicization of this issue" led Obama to believe "it would be harmful to the policy itself" and not sustainable.