President Obama’s unilateral declaration of legal status
upon millions of illegal immigrants was a violation of his Constitutional
limitations. Even if you approve of amnesty for illegal immigrants, you should
not support the precedent of unchecked authority by any president. What if a
Republican president was unable to negotiate a sweeping tax reform bill with a
Democratic Congress, so instead suspended enforcement of particular parts of
the tax code unilaterally?
What upsets me most about President Obama’s announcement was
how disingenuous he was to address certain illegal immigrants that had arrived
before 2010. Are we supposed to expect deportations for those that arrived
since 2010? Get real. Obama was not trying to address the problem of illegal
immigration at all. He was setting the
tone for his last two years in office: Congress and the voters who elected them
be damned.
The problem with the Democrats’ strategy of repeating the
1986 blanket amnesty is that it fails to address the underlying crisis of
illegal immigration. The 1986 amnesty was at least passed with the promise of
securing the border and enforcing immigration laws so that we would never be
faced with the same problem again. The fact that border security has not
happened is why amnesty is so unpopular today. The truth is that an open border
coupled with a welfare state is a ruinous combination. There is nothing hard
about Obama’s decision to let more people in now. The hard decisions come after
President Obama and the others in power in DC are out of office, when tens of
millions of more illegal immigrants have arrived and our social entitlement
programs finally default, which is the trajectory that they are on. A Balanced
Budget Amendment will be needed at some point to stop DC from obligating
America to unsustainable promises for political gain.
In President Obama’s speech, he cited the case of Astrid
Silva, an illegal immigrant who came to the US when she was four and is now
working on her third college degree. She
appears to be fully assimilated into American culture and on track to be a true
asset to our society. However, granting
Ms. Silva legal status now ensures that tens of millions of more illegal
immigrants will follow her over our unsecured border, and many of them will not
be contributors. In fact, the DHS has already warned that a new wave of
arrivals is likely to swarm the border soon. The answer is to secure our border
and enforce our visas before discussing who should stay. Had Obama begun his
presidency on this path, he might have been able to see the rewards of his
reforms before leaving office.
Now the discussion is centered on what the Republicans will do
to rein in a rogue President. They absolutely should defund Obama’s executive
order. Then they must pass a bill as President Obama says. That bill should not be for Immigration
Reform, though, but rather for Border Security Reform. Only after we have a
secure Southern border and enforcement of our visas should we discuss who
stays. That would be an example of actual compromise – something that doesn’t
genuinely interest the president and the supporters of his latest affront to
the Constitution.
* * * * *
I came across this article by Daniel Horowitz that talks more about the GOPs impotent response to the president's executive order. It explains the problem and the solution perfectly:
No comments:
Post a Comment