By Emily Leyva
President Obama hosted an event at the White House on Monday to commemorate the Cinco de Mayo holiday.
During the celebration, Obama took the opportunity to address current immigration issues which received thunderous applause and loud woots and hollers in approval from the audience.
"Opportunity for all is why I'm trying to fix a broken immigration system," he said.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, in 2012, an estimated 11.4 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the U.S. compared to 11.5 million in January 2011. Though the numbers have decreased, the results suggest little to no change in the immigration reform process. Of those numbers, 59 percent were from Mexico.
In his address, Obama recognized a bipartisan effort that was introduced last year to grow the economy and shrink our deficit. Since then, he said, there has not been any attempt to reintroduce or implement change in immigration reform due to the Republican's party's refusal to cooperate.
"I'm going to work with everyone who is serious about strengthening our borders, modernizing our legal immigration system, keeping our families together and getting this done" said Obama.
The president rallied the audience to encourage their politicians and fellow voters to "get on board" to saying yes to fixing our broken immigration system.
"Today, we celebrate our shared heritage, our shared history, our shared future," said Obama. "And that's not something to be afraid of, that's something we need to embrace."
CNN announced today that Boko Haram retaliated against a a base that was used as a site to help relocate the hundreds of schoolgirls who were abducted by the militant group last month.
According to witnesses, the assault lasted for hours and left nearly 150 people dead. Some of the charred bodies were a reminder to the people of Nigeria and families of the missing that the Nigerian government may not have much, if not any control over the the extremists who has so successfully terrorized the country and launched a social media frenzy.
A father of two girls who were abducted on April 14 believes that the Nigerian government has not exercised its power into finding the girls.
Nigerian officials have disputed this claims stating, "We've done a lot -- but we are not talking about it," presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe said. "We're not Americans. We're not showing people, you know, but it does not mean that we are not doing something."
But the father, who wished to conceal his identity in an interview with CNN, rebutted the response. "We have never seen any military man there," he said
Since the attack, the anonymous father and many others have feared exposure, since he believes that Boko Haram have infiltrated the village and are disguised as regular civilians. He and his family don't dare to sleep in their houses, rather, they sleep outside in bushes, hidden from danger.
Boko Haram which means "Western education is sinful" is the equivalent to the Taliban and has declared war on Western education, particularly on women receiving an education.
A video was released last week from a man who is suspected to be the group's leader declaring that he will sell the abducted girls.
"There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women."
While hope is slowly diminishing, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram remain ablaze with words of encouragement and calls for government action.
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Newt Gingrich and Tarek Fatah have their say in the matter, but what's most important is getting these girls home safe to their families. The only accounts we should be following are the families of the missing and their pleas to the assailants. One mother, begged for her girls' freedom:
"Why would they molest these little ones? Please ... release them."
