President Barack Obama gave his State of the Union Address this evening, and with another one of his speeches came several promises he will not be able to keep. From pursuing any remnants of Al Qaeda to discussing smarter tax policy, Obama endlessly attempted to leave Americans with a sense of (false) hope. 

Throughout his six years in office, the president has failed to uphold countless promises. For example, he first mentioned the need for America to embrace new immigration policies in 2008, leaving Latino-Americans heavily disappointed because immigration reform has not been made. 

In the spring of 2008, Obama went as far to say that he could,  “guarantee that we will have, in the first year, an immigration bill that I strongly support.” He repeatedly used the economic crisis as his fallback for the lack of progress in immigration reform. Even though he insisted $833 million should go into the American Re-Investment and Recovery Act for education, health and tax reform, he failed to include vast legislation or funds towards making changes in immigration. 

Obama did call for immigration reform, again, in June of 2009, but again failed to focus on the topic because healthcare, the recession, and energy reform were deemed primary problems by the American government. Obama did not stop making promises for reforms when he repeated that he would “fix immigration policy” at the 2010 state of the Union address. 

The president reminded Americans that, “We should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system — to secure our borders and enforce our laws, and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation.”

This idea that “our immigration system is broken” was repeated today, four years later, in the 2014 State of the Union Address, because the problem still hasn’t been solved. However, Obama hopes to “get the problem solved this year.” 

Obama mentioned, “We are not doing right by the American people.” Hopefully, he knows that with more and more of his empty promises, he and his administration, further harm not only Americans, but also foreign citizens. Americans who have lost confident and trust in their government, and foreign citizens, who also deserve the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

Maya Richard-Craven Staff Reporter here