It's time to act on immigration
No doubt President Obama has heard the old saying: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Well, what kind of fool would he be if he believed Republicans' latest claims of sincere interest in meaningful immigration reform? Their track record suggests otherwise.
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No doubt President Obama has heard the old saying: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Well, what kind of fool would he be if he believed Republicans' latest claims of sincere interest in meaningful immigration reform? Their track record suggests otherwise.
In fact, the GOP's capture of both congressional chambers in the midterm elections may make House Republicans even more stubborn than last year, when they killed a bipartisan Senate bill. The House majority acts as if more border security will address the 11 million illegal immigrants already here, but they know it won't.
Rather than ignore reality, Obama embraced it. He issued an executive order granting legal residency to the so-called Dreamers, those who had no say in being brought into the country illegally as children. The executive order, however, made House Republicans more defiant.
Given the odds against a reform bill getting through Congress, Obama had planned to issue another executive order granting residency to more immigrants. But he decided to wait until after the midterm elections to avoid any backlash against Democrats in close races.
Most of those candidates lost anyway, with several blaming inadequate support from Latino voters who were upset that Obama delayed his executive order. "There was a political miscalculation," said Lorella Praeli of the immigration reform group United We Dream.
Obama met with Republican leaders after the midterms to discuss working together. But he is still expected to issue the immigration order. Republicans have warned that it will poison any attempts to reach a compromise on other issues. But their past dealings with Obama hardly make promises of future support credible.
It's true that Republicans crave more of the Latino vote. But that was also true prior to the 2012 elections, and the Republican House wouldn't budge on immigration then. If Republican leaders are serious about reform, they will stop threatening Obama and admit that another executive order doesn't preclude comprehensive legislative reform.