Saturday, June 16, 2012

Obama and the Illegals

The President goes with a narrative-changer:

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants will get a chance to stay in the United States and work under a new policy announced Friday by the Obama administration.

President Obama's action removes the threat of deportation for as many as 800,000 immigrants nationally -- including hundreds in Minnesota -- who are under 30 and came to the United States as children. It does not offer them citizenship or permanent residency.
As a practical matter, it doesn't really change things that much. Most people who are in this country illegally haven't had to worry about getting deported anyway. The idea that you can simply deport millions of people is absurd on its face.

Mitt Romney didn't take the bait:


Some Republicans in Congress — and the governor of Arizona, whose state has been at the center of enforcement controversy — strongly criticized the Obama action. But the response from Romney was more muted.

Romney said Obama's decision will make finding a long-term solution to the nation's immigration issues more difficult. But he also said the plight of illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children is "an important matter to be considered."

That's about the only response you can offer. An executive order is only as binding as the executive who enforces it. Obama is president and gets to be president until January 20, 2013, perhaps longer. This will not be the issue that determines the election.

7 comments:

Gino said...

this will help the president carry CA and IL for sure.

Anonymous said...

It should be. This is another in a long series of illegal actions by an Imperial President who thinks he is King, and who denounced the very action he has just taken, less than a year ago. Whether this makes reform more difficult or less, it is up to Congress to set the law, not Presidential fiat.

As a practical matter most of these kids, you are correct, weren't in danger of deportation anyway, and in most cases are more American than anything else, moving easily in our society. I think real immigration reform might make special exemptions for such people, but without amnesty of any kind.

As a political matter it's probably another misstep for Obama to openly pander to another special interest, and to act contrary to the general public's will on an issue.

J. Ewing

Anonymous said...

How is it that this group helps his election status. Do they get to vote illegally as well?

W.B. Picklesworth said...

*sniff sniff*
Eau de desperation. This country is going to reek of it for months.

Gino said...

anon: in CA they do. ask Loretta Sanchez how she won her seat in congress.

Anonymous said...

It probably works in MN, too, since our POS SOS doesn't include that in the required training for election judges.

Night Writer said...

Great cartoon:
http://www.gocomics.com/mike-lester/2012/06/17