Why Obama shouldn’t act alone on immigration
President Obama has done his share to fix the nation’s broken immigration system.
He backed comprehensive changes along the lines of those championed by former president George W. Bush. He proposed solutions to the crisis of children from Central America showing up at the U.S. border. And, while waiting for Congress to act, his administration has vigorously enforced current law, deporting more than 2 million people who came here unlawfully.
None of this has gotten him anywhere. House Republicans ignored a balanced and bipartisan immigration overhaul passed by the Senate. And Congress left town for its summer recess without acting on the border crisis.
Now the president is thinking about going it alone, using an executive order to grant a kind of quasi-legal status to undocumented immigrants.
He would do this by removing certain people from consideration for deportation. In 2012, he did this for some children. And now he is considering greatly expanding the numbers, perhaps to include millions of undocumented workers who would be granted a path to citizenship under the Senate-passed bill. Our advice: Don’t do it. Yes, the intransigence of Republicans in the House is exasperating. Many would vote for the bill, but in the name of party unity, the leadership gave its immigration hard-liners a veto. They’re blocking a national consensus for changes that would blend a path to legal status for the estimated 11 million undocumented people in the USA with tough enforcement and other changes to discourage future waves on illegal immigration.
This intransigence is also a necessary hurdle to overcome. Congress is the only appropriate venue for adopting such sweeping changes in policy. Obama himself has said so in the past. An executive order affecting a small segment of children brought here by their parents is one thing. A policy shift impacting millions of undocumented workers is quite another.
Congressional action is necessary both as a sign of a functioning democracy and as a lesson for lawmakers that they can’t ignore their responsibilities forever.
If Obama were to make a major unilateral policy shift, he would, in essence, let House Republicans off the hook. The pressure on them to act would be lessened. At the same time, they would be able to attack him for being an “imperial president.”
Unilateral action might energize Obama’s liberal base before the elections, but it would set a dangerous precedent for future presidents to act on other significant matters without the assent of Congress.
Better to let the legislative process play out. Eventually, major immigration reforms will be enacted, either on a bipartisan basis or by a Democratic majority that will work its will against a marginalized GOP. The changing demographics of the American electorate make that inevitable.
Sooner or later, Republicans will realize that they have to court immigrant voters, who share many of their socially conservative values, if they want to win national elections. When that happens, the nation, as well as the GOP, will be better off.