/Sigh…
Pure political move. Worst.President.Ever.
All the Indian work visa guys in my office are pissed because they have been waiting 5-10 years for their green cards. Dudes are saying they should become illegal and claim asylum.
He has definitely entered into I just DGAF mode. I love how it wasnt even aired on the major networks but he got his target audience on Univision. If lived in Mexico and I had any thought of crossing the border you bet your ass I’d be Carl Lewis-ing my way into Arizona today. I picture him after that speech going into the Lincoln Bedroom and blasting Run DMC - Down with the King.
Aye. We need immigration reform.
What we need is to replace this useless President. more evidence of the stupidity of the public.
It’s Tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that’s right on time It’s Tricky…it’s Tricky (Tricky) Tricky (Tricky) It’s Tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that’s right on time It’s Tricky…Tr-tr-tr-tricky (Tricky) Trrrrrrrrrrricky
So what is this immigration move anyway? From my reading, it prevents the parents of US citizens from being deported. It doesn’t provide them citizenship or any other rights. Just keeps families together. I’m not sure this is a big deal? But maybe I don’t understand the full American view on this?
The deeply unpleasant (but very interesting) offshoot of this action is that the inter-party racial split is going to become even more pronounced. So Democrats are going to start picking up even wider margins among Hispanics (think 75-25) while Republicans have a shot to make serious inroads with working and middle-class whites outside of the south. So thinking 2016, Hillary picks up Florida easily, but potentially Scott Walker has a chance to flip Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and even Michigan.
Depending upon what happens, this executive order could have enormous political implications for generations to come. Note that it’s definitely not a slam dunk for either party.
Edit: I should add New Hampshire, Colorado, and Iowa to the list of potential Republican flips.
^ Obama is issuing an order declaring large swaths of the illegal immigrant population (~5mm) immune to deportation. The stated legal justification (narrowly correct, by the way) is that this is an excercise in prosecutorial discretion–in other words, the government has only limited resources to deport people (around 400k a year) so Obama is directing them to only focus on felons and newly arrived ilegals. There’s also a work permit portion, the legality of which is much more in doubt (and which may be more rhetorical than anything else). The big change would be that that 5 million people who were here illegally and could be deported at any moment now won’t be.
Barrack Obama change gone comma. I love it when he quoted GWB.
So they could be deported, but since only 400,000 per year can be, they likely wouldn’t be anyway? So this doesn’t really change anything? Wouldn’t Americans rather immigration officials focus on felons and such rather than Mexicans with American children? I understand the need to police borders and I understand that all the illegals should get the boot, but in a world with limited resources, is this not a practical path anyway? I also understand many industries in the US (agriculture being one) really on illegals for their cost structure?
^ The clear fact on the ground is that there are 13 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, and the government simply doesn’t have the resources or the will to round them all up and deport them. (Remember that Mitt Romney’s solution of “self-deportation” was roundly mocked.) So you’re completely correct in saying that almost all of these people were not going to be deported anyway. On the merits, bringing these people “out of the shadows,” in Obama’s phrase, is correct.
The real issue is the mechanism. An executive order sets a serious precedent of broad executive werewithal to decide to what extent laws will be enforced. Nothing is going to stop a President Cruz in the future from declaring companies largely exempt from abiding by, say, the Clean Air Act or even tax laws going forward. He can argue that, due to prosecutorial discretion, the government only has limited resources to go after offenders, so the government will only prosecute serious law breakers, effectively rendering the laws meaningless. This will lead to a serious constitutional crisis.
The proper mechanism is through the legislature. Just because Congress won’t act doesn’t give the President the right to act. This is one of the bells that can’t be unrung.
This is all political theater. The people “protected” by this wouldn’t really have been at risk of deportation anyway. The President is basically pandering to Latino voters to try to keep them firmly in the democratic party’s corner. Republicans, to their discredit, are falling right into the trap.
Completely disagree with this sentence. Republicans have so far shown enormous restraint (how many senators/congressman have gone on TV and called for impeachment?). We will see if that lasts.
Agree with all above. It’s not like US can deport those 5 million guys anyway. However, now they have explicit protection, so the fear of deportation is lower. Before, maybe people are afraid of 5% deportation chance. Now, Obama says make it 0% chance. It’s still a net benefit to illegal immigrants.
So, now the plan is to get preggers, walk over to San Diego for “vacation”, then you’re here to stay.
I’m pretty sure we all agreed, just yesterday, that women shouldn’t travel in their third trimester.
Yeah, I was trying to figure out what the big difference was, here. Basically, it seems like he’s publicly pronouncing that he will ignore the law in certain cases, though. It was pretty much already being ignored because the US doesn’t have the resources to completely enforce the law. But it’s pretty annoying that Obama is, once again, publicly stating that he won’t enforce a law that he doesn’t like.
Next time, I hope we get a President with some character.
The thing about immigration that pisses me off is that most of the people fighting to stay in America don’t care for it. I work with people from Eastern Europe who are here for a job and that’s it. They don’t really like America the country - they just see it as a place to get ahead. If anyone likes America and wants to stay, learn English and be a productive member of society then stay.
I think that right now America’s biggest problem is pluralism. I think it’s a failed system and creates conflict because “we’re all equal but different and special.” We need to make English the official language. We need to recognize that this is a still a country people can come to if they’re ambitious, but we need to counter it by making citizenship a two way street. America provides opportunity for you and your future generations. We should be able to get something in return. You can’t have a test to say if you actually care for America so I think mandatory military service for anyone 18-35 wanting to immigrate is worthwhile. If you want to come to the table, put some skin in the game. The only other option should be proving you provide a unique skill via work visas.
^ Dead right. The comprehensive immigration solutions kicking around Congress always involved securing the border first for precisely the reason that amnesty acts as a magnet for future illegal immigrants. Republicans want to stop new inflows before they agree to legalize the ones already here.