Becerra spars with former Bush AG on immigration action

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) on Sunday said “we need to move” on immigration action and pushed back against former Bush administration Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. 

Gonzales argued on a panel on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Obama should hold off on executive action on immigration, given that there is new congressional leadership. 

“We now have a new Congress, a new congressional leadership, and I don’t understand the urgency,” Gonzales said.

Becerra told Gonzales that the issue is, in fact, urgent.

“If it were your child, and you were about to be separated from your child, simply because Congress is dysfunctional and doesn’t get its job done, then you would say, ‘My God, this is crazy, a citizen child being separated [from their family],’ ” Becerra said. 

Obama has said he is moving ahead with executive actions on immigration despite strong warnings from Republicans in Congress. 

Obama already delayed the actions once, waiting until after the midterm elections in an effort to prevent a backlash against red-state Democrats. 

“The people voted in November to have us get things done,” Becerra said.