Obama’s moral failure on immigration

In the U.S., we change stupid and broken laws. That is why first lady Michelle Obama and women across the U.S. can vote. That is why President Obama and I can eat at the same lunch counters in the South.

A law that allows the destruction of 400,000 families a year is immoral. Obama needs to make an honest push for immigration reform and stop his administration's reign of terror against non-criminal undocumented immigrants.

Something is afoot in immigrant communities. In Chicago, courageous young immigrants are "coming out," publicly declaring that they are undocumented and unafraid of the consequences. If immigration legislation stalls, President Obama may provoke a new period of civil rights confrontations — aimed at him.

The author, Joshua Hoyt is the executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.