John McCain, Obama’s Republican opponent, had spent the entirety of the Republican primary running away from his otherwise admirable record of bipartisan advocacy for immigration reform. Obama attacked him for getting cold feet once immigration reform became “politically unpopular.” His own rhetoric was that of a reformer with an ear to the grassroots. In one speech, he said, “When communities are terrorized by ICE immigration raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children come home from school to find their parents missing, when people are detained without access to
...more
