Justin Bieber can finally stop holding his breath. The White House has finally responded to the “Deport Justin Bieber and Revoke His Green Card” petition. As I’m sure you all remember from my previous post, “angry” citizens had petitioned the White House to have Bieber deported following his arrest in Miami on DUI and resisting arrest charges. As I pointed out in that post, the petition was misguided in that Bieber is in the United States on an O visa, not as a green card holder. I also boldly predicted the White House would pass the buck saying they don’t comment on specific cases. I don’t get tired of saying, “I was right.”
Though the White House statement was a typical non-answer, it was at least amusing, which is not typical of the White House. After saying that they were “sorry to disappoint, but [they] won’t be commenting on this one,” referring to the petition, the White House used the opportunity to push for immigration reform. This is where the White House got witty. In support of the call for immigration reform, the post points out that reform will “grow our economy and shrink our deficits by almost $1 trillion in the next 20 years. For those of you counting at home, that’s 12.5 billion concert tickets – or 100 billion copies of Mr. Bieber’s debut album.” The White House, I’m guessing for the first time in history, then quoted Bieber lyrics in calling on Republicans to schedule a vote on reform saying “never say never – House Republicans could do this tomorrow.”
So to recap: I was right, the White House made essentially no comment on Bieber’s case; the Obama Administration is witty or at least amusing, if not cheesy; and the White House call for reform continues.
