The Rough Road For Cecilia Muñoz, Defender Of Obama’s Immigration Policy

*One of the most influential Latinas in Washington is stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place. An advocate who must now defend the White House. Sellout? Gladiator? You decide. VL

By Evan McMorris-Santoro and Kate Nocera, BuzzFeed

WASHINGTON — When President Obama selected Cecilia Muñoz to be one of his top advisers in 2009, activists were elated: One of their own would be in Washington, driving major changes to U.S. immigration policy.

Five years later, that elation has hardened into something else — disappointment.

Sweeping change to immigration law is dead on Capitol Hill and the Obama administration has deported more than 2 million undocumented immigrants. Some activists are furious with what they see as the administration’s slugged response to changing deportation policy, and hesitancy to expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program that allows some undocumented immigrants brought here as children to stay.

And they were livid when the White House, in response to the crisis at the border, expressed openness to amending a 2008 sex-trafficking law that would expedite the deportation of many of the unaccompanied minors from Central America, who have crossed the border in recent months. The quiet, implied White House argument is that action is needed on the border before the administration announces a series of executive actions aimed at slowing deportations, people involved in those talks have said. At the center of that effort is Cecilia Muñoz.

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[Photo by University of Michigan’s Ford School/Flickr]