Rob Bluey has the details,
Obama Tells La Raza: ‘The Democrats and Your President Are With You’ (emphasis added)
President Obama opened his speech to the National Council of La Raza yesterday by publicly acknowledging the Hispanic group’s close ties to the White House, a relationship that has aligned the two on nearly every policy issue during his presidency.
“Right off the bat, I should thank you because I have poached quite a few of your alumni to work in my administration,” Obama said to laughter. “They’re all doing outstanding work. … Latinos serving at every level of my administration.”
Those alumni have rewarded La Raza generously with taxpayer funding. A Judicial Watch investigation last month revealed the organization’s federal funding skyrocketed after Obama hired La Raza’s senior vice president, Cecilia Muñoz, to be his director of intergovernmental affairs in January 2009.
The Judicial Watch report shows,
This week a JW probe has uncovered details of the alarming increase in federal funding that these NCLR groups have received since Muñoz joined the Obama Administration. In fact, the government cash more than doubled the year Muñoz joined the White House, from $4.1 million to $11 million.
Not surprisingly, a big chunk of the money (60%) came from the Department of Labor, which is headed by a former California congresswoman (Hilda Solis) with close ties to the La Raza movement. Since Obama named her Labor Secretary, Solis has launched a nationwide campaign to protect illegal immigrant workers in the U.S. Just this week Solis penned declarations with Guatemala and Nicaragua to preserve the rights of their migrants.
The NCLR also received additional taxpayer dollars from other federal agencies in 2010, the JW probe found. The Department of Housing and Urban Development doled out $2.5 million for housing counseling, the Department of Education contributed nearly $800,000 and the Centers for Disease Control a quarter of a million.
Additionally, NCLR affiliates nationwide raked in tens of millions of government grant and recovery dollars last year thanks to the Muñoz factor. An offshoot called Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) saw its federal funding nearly double to $18.3 million following Muñoz’ appointment.
A social service and legal assistance organization (Ayuda Inc.) that didn’t receive any federal funding between 2005 and 2008 got $600,000 in 2009 and $548,000 in 2010 from the Department of Justice. The group provides immigration law services and guarantees confidentiality to assure illegal aliens that they won’t be reported to authorities.
In order to appoint Muñoz, Obama had to issue a special “ethics waiver” to get around his own ban on appointing lobbyists.
In spite of all this, the audience was not impressed: The Washington Post reports that Obama leaves Hispanic activists unsatisfied, since La Raza’s goal is complete immigration amnesty. There’s even a protest scheduled for today,
At 3 p.m. Tuesday, a coalition of Latino organizations, including CASA de Maryland, CARECEN, Familias Unidas, Presente.org, Progressive Maryland, Gamaliel, Partnership for Renewal in Southern and Central Maryland, Center for Community Change and the Franciscan Action Center, has scheduled a protest in front of the White House.
La Raza is a demanding mistress, indeed.
In his speech, Obama also said,
“Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own”
Am I the only person outraged that a President of the US would even contemplate the idea of a dictatorship?
