Reid: Obama gave immigrants a ‘special’ Thanksgiving

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said President Obama’s executive order on immigration allowed immigrant families across the United States to celebrate the holidays without fear.

“For many families across America, this Thanksgiving was particularly special,” Reid said on the Senate floor Monday. “Because of President Obama’s recent executive actions, many immigrant families celebrated the holiday for the first time without the threat of deportation.”

{mosads}Last week, Obama announced that he would issue nearly 5 million worker visas to immigrants inside the United States, most of which have children that are U.S. citizens. Republicans blasted the move, saying Obama was violating the separation of powers.

Reid said the executive order “needed to be done” because House Republicans have refused to take up a bipartisan Senate-passed bill aimed at addressing immigration issues.

“I have seen firsthand how our nation’s failing immigration system has torn families apart,” Reid said. “For every one family that is reunited, thousands and thousands of others have been decimated by deportations.”

Reid said the House still has time to fix the “broken” system, though it isn’t likely that will happen in the last two weeks of the 113th Congress.

“House Republicans still can, and should, pass the bipartisan immigration bill that the Senate approved 520 days ago,” Reid said.