Rep. Luis Gutierrez says he's had to address the executive action taken by President Barack Obama on immigration differently in Spanish then in English.
In English, the questions - largely from media - are about why the president could sign the executive order that could shield up to five million people from deportation, said Gutierrez, D-Ill.
"In English, we kind of keep talking about the benefits, getting millions of families in the system and on the books and concentrating our resources on securing the border," he said. "But in Spanish, usually there is a very different story."
In Spanish, he's talking about when and how.
"We've received a couple of thousand of phone calls and we are getting hundreds of more every day since the president announced and typically people are very, very happy. They want to know if the president's action applies to them, their families or their next door neighbors," Gutierrez said.
Some examples of questions in Spanish that he gave:
--I'm nine months pregnant. My child is due on Christmas. Will I qualify?
--My dad had a deportation order in 1990. Does that disqualify him?
--I have U.S. citizen children and have been here 20 years but my mother doesn't have U.S. citizen kids, does she get to stay?
Gutierrez said his favorite comments are from Latinos who are U.S. citizens. They are calling to tell him "how happy I am that somebody's finally done something. That somebody is finally talking about Latinos and not calling them criminals or terrorists."
IN DEPTH
- Voices: Our Immigration Journey Out of the Shadows
- Obama Ends Controversial Secure Communities Program
- Latino Conservatives Tout Reform
--Suzanne Gamboa
