President Obama will travel to a Nashville community center on Tuesday to highlight local efforts to promote immigration, the latest stop in a national tour intended to promote his executive action offering deportation relief and work permits to millions of immigrants in the country illegally.
{mosads}Obama is slated to give a speech and field questions at Casa Azafrán, the home to immigrant-related nonprofits that help connect immigrants with medical care, education services and arts spaces. According to a White House official, the site was selected because Nashville has worked hard to recruit and welcome immigrant populations.
“Nashville has experienced substantial growth in recent years, including one of the highest job growth rates in the country,” a White House official said. “Local leaders recognize that such growth is due in part to Nashville’s efforts to actively work to create a welcoming environment for new Americans.”
While in Nashville, the president is expected to promote his executive action establishing a White House task force to examine better coordinating federal and local policies regarding integrating new Americans into their communities. He’s also expected to repeat his calls on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation.
The trip comes a day after a new poll suggested that many voters support a legal challenge of the president’s executive action on immigration, which extends benefits to the parents of U.S. citizens and permanent residents. According to the Rasmussen survey, 45 percent of likely voters say their state should sue the federal government over the new policy. Some 42 percent of respondents oppose such a measure, while 13 percent are undecided.
The visit also comes on the same day House Republicans are set to unveil a government funding package expected to only fund the Department of Homeland Security, the agency responsible of implementing the president’s executive action, through early spring. Lawmakers in the GOP hope they could use the short-term funding measure to revisit the issue after assuming control of both chambers of Congress in the new year.
The president is also expected to tape interviews with Spanish-language TV channels Telemundo and Univision during the trip as part of the outreach effort.