The same Latino civil rights group that called President Barack Obama "Deporter-In-Chief" said Tuesday night that there was a "growing malignancy" in the Republican party when it came to extreme views on immigration.
The National Council of La Raza's president and CEO Janet Murguía addressed a large crowd at the organization's annual awards gala and slammed the GOP for inaction on immigration reform as well as for threatening to defund Homeland Security over Obama's executive actions on immigration.
Murguía directed her criticism at House Speaker John Boehner, saying he avoided catastrophe Tuesday when Republicans passed a Homeland Security funding bill without measures to erase Obama's executive action, but chided him for not passing an immigration reform bill.
"Where is your solution? Where is your bill?" she said.
"Every time you say no to reform it bears a real cost, a human cost, to countless families and their children," said Murguía.
She said the GOP's "blockade" on immigration was having a "searing" impact on the community. "Make no mistake. Our complaint is not partisan. It's personal."
NCLR, one of the country's largest Latino civil rights organizations, took the president to task a year ago over the administration's deportation numbers. This year, Murguía took a more conciliatory tone, saying the president had "stepped into the vacuum" the Republicans left by instituting his executive actions, which are now on hold after a recent lower court ruling.
The president "deserves an enormous amount of credit for acting boldly and responsibly. And for that we say thank you, Mr. President," said Murguía. She also pointed out there was support on immigration measures from Republicans such as Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL), and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).