Let there be no doubt, immigration reform is still on the President’s agenda.
Obama has expended considerable political capital in his push to pass health care, financial regulation, and campaign finance reforms, so it has gone to the back burner, sort of. The man is pragmatic, if he is nothing else and he realizes he has little chance of seeing his promise of immigration reform fulfilled before the mid-term elections. Having said that, Latino and Hispanic activists are not about to let the issue go completely away.
FOX News is reporting that the President held a meeting on Monday with labor leaders and activists, with the topic being how to best to accomplish comprehensive immigration reform. You can be sure, part of the strategy will be how to best portray the Republican opposition to the reforms Obama and his team come up with. If they choose to move towards a form of amnesty for the illegal immigrants now living in America, the Republicans are sure to say no, as well they should. If this happens, here is the likely result.
Latino leaders say they will work in coming months to pressure Republicans to give way and support an immigration bill — and make opponents pay at the ballot box if they don’t.
“We’re going to make absolutely crystal clear who’s at fault here,” said Eliseo Medina, a leader of the Service Employees International Union.
As a candidate, Barack Obama pledged to make immigration reform a top priority in his first year in office. When you look at his Organizing For America website, you find that he believes our immigration system is broken. Here is what the website says about the issue of immigration.
Democrats and Republicans alike overwhelmingly agree that our immigration system is broken and that it’s unacceptable to have 11 million people in the United States who are living here illegally and outside of the system. Over the past few years, the immigration debate has often been portrayed as a false choice between amnesty and mass deportation. The real debate over immigration is whether we keep a broken system that undermines our economy and national security, or whether we work together to fix it.
Now, let’s look at what he calls his guiding principles on immigration reform.
Guiding Principles:
The President has made it clear that the only way to truly secure the borders and have an orderly immigration system that honors our traditions as both a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants is through comprehensive reform grounded in the principles of responsibility and accountability:
- Responsibility from the federal government to secure our borders: The Obama administration takes this responsibility very seriously and has dedicated unprecedented resources to securing our borders and reducing the flow of illegal traffic in both directions.
- Responsibility from unscrupulous businesses that break the law: Employers who exploit undocumented workers undermine American workers, and they have to be held accountable.
- Responsibility from people who are living in the United States illegally: Undocumented workers who are in good standing must admit that they broke the law, pay taxes and a penalty, learn English, and get right with the law before they can get in line to earn their citizenship.
Comprehensive immigration reform is essential to continuing the tradition of innovation that immigrants have brought to the American economy and to ensuring a level playing field for American workers. It’s also essential to providing lasting and dedicated security for our borders.
These words sound wonderful and grand, but I have two questions. Is our immigration system really so broken that it needs a complete overhaul? What does the President and his group of community organizers and activists really mean when they say we need comprehensive immigration reform?
I fail to see where our immigration system is completely broken down. Those who enter America illegally may not want to wait in line and follow the requirements, but the fact remains that we do have such a system in place. People from all over the world can immigrate to our country legally, as long as they follow the law. I was unable to find information that explains how long it usually takes, but that is really beside the point. Just because some people disagree with how long it does take to become a legal immigrant does not give them the right to disregard the law. That may have been common practice in the past, but it has to stop.
As I have mentioned many times on this blog, the first thing we need to do concerning immigration is secure the border. Until we do that, everything else is a moot point. It may not be possible to achieve a completely secure border, without a full military lock down, and that may not be so desirable. Putting a total halt to all illegals coming into this country is a daunting task and will not be easy, but we should make every effort to bring that number to a manageable level.
I believe the main problem we have with illegal immigration is the lack of a desire for strict and unyielding enforcement of our current immigration law. For too many years, the border sifted illegal immigrants like flour, allowing them to migrate northward, in search of jobs. Those jobs have been provided by companies looking for workers who would work much cheaper than would Americans or legal citizens. Even though some local law enforcement officials have had the desire to crack down on the problem, the lack of help from Washington has limited their effectiveness.
I have written before about how our local police departments have been instructed to let illegals go through the checkpoints that have been set up. This, because once they were arrested, there was no one to take them. The federal authorities were unable or unwilling to do their job, so it is easier on everyone concerned to just let them walk. In my way of thinking, that is unacceptable and tells me that something has to change. It also begs the question; why is the federal government so unwilling to crack down hard enough on illegal immigrants to make a difference?
So, where does President Obama weigh in on the subject? Right now, he is focusing on two different things. First, he is making sure Latinos and Hispanics know he has not forgotten them. He will be giving a speech Thursday morning at American University in Washington. He met Tuesday with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to brief them on the speech. In it, he is expected to reiterate that closing the border to illegals, drug traffickers, terrorists, etc., etc., is only part of the solution to fixing our “broken immigration system”. In the meantime, he continually reminds us all of how Arizona is committing a major transgression by passing a law that makes it illegal to be illegal. If he would focus on how to make the Arizona law unneeded, maybe we could see some progress. Instead, he wants the Department of Justice to sue the state. I don’t mind telling you, that doesn’t sit right with me.
Now, we come to the second of my two questions. What does the President want from immigration reform? There have been rumors that he is considering granting a form of blanket amnesty to the millions of illegal immigrants who now reside in the United States. So far, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security are denying that such a plan is under
consideration. Suffice it to say that if the rumors are true, the political and societal implications are enormous. Granting 11 million or more illegal immigrants legal status overnight would completely change the political landscape, in a way that would almost certainly be very damaging to our country. No doubt, such a plan would be very beneficial to Latino and Hispanic groups, for they would gain tremendous political clout with the addition to their ranks. Is this what the President is aiming for with immigration reform? I can’t begin to know the tact he is about to take on the issue, but you can rest assured, he will play it to his political advantage, if at all possible.
I think the image above tells a story. If the illegal immigrants in our country are able to put enough pressure on the President and Congress, there is no doubt they will want to be granted amnesty, in one form or another. That is their stated goal, to have came to the United States illegally and then be forgiven. After all, it is much easier than just following the law. Once that is accomplished, it will not be many days hence before they are granted the right to vote in our elections. That would be a travesty of the highest order and one we can not afford to see happen.
I go back once again to the question I asked in the title of this post. What does Obama want to see in immigration reform? We may be able to answer that question in a few days, but I fear it will not be good for our country.
Cross posted at Redstate.
Larry,
We’re all frustrated with the state of “immigration” in America, but I am a little taken aback by this statement:
“I fail to see where our immigration system is completely broken down”
All due respect, I find it odd from a blogger who has taken the position again and again that our states and communities are being forced to enact laws to combat the problem that the Federal government won’t/can’t deal with.
I would say that our system broken, and that it has been since the 60s when agricultural, manufacturing and service businesses began importing labor from Mexico to satisfy their need for cheap labor. Remember what we used to call it? “Migrant work”, and it was all to satisfy agricultural and processing plants’ need to turn a profit. My personal experience is with sugar beet fields and S & H Sugar, but there were many. Over the years, many of the “migrant workers” stayed behind until we had over 2.5 million illegals in the US. And then they were offered amnesty by the Reagan administration, I think to satisfy the needs of business owners and to keep that part of capitalism profitable and contributing to political campaigns.
I have no idea what the President wants from immigration reform. As you know, I have a strong suspicion that each political party only wants an election opportunity to bash each other with their opposing views, to signal each base that the other is out of touch with American needs/opinions. And I strongly beleive that this problem will never be solved as long as we continue to allow polarized solutions be the only ones we respond to.
The right says “No amnesty for law breakers”, yet continues to turn (largely) a blind eye to the American business owners who are the root of the problem. The left says “Human rights for all!” yet continues to ignore those of foreign origin who take advantage of our system and add expenses to our country that we cannot afford. And the American people have been happy to take sides, ignoring the fact that polarized, bumper-sticker politics haven’t worked and that nuanced and multi-level changes are necessary to fix the issue.
And at the root of it all? Money, of course. Every stakeholder in this, from the illegal workers to the American businesses to the politicans stand to make/lose money based on comprehensive reform or even enforcement of what we already have on the books. Every stakeholder, that is, except the American people as a whole. If we continue to accept this as a polticial football, we’re the only ones who lose.
Call it reform, call it enforcement- it needs to happen now. And the only way we can help affect real change is to tell our politicans to SOLVE, not whine, that we don’t care about politics-we care about our country.
Laurie,
I don’t have time for a detailed response, as I am about to leave for church, but let me explain what I mean by saying I do not believe our immigration system is completely broken down.
I think our system of immigration would work, if the border was secure and the current immigration laws were enforced. Because neither of those are true, nor have they been in years past, the system can not work the way it should.
In other words, I do not think it is necessary to reinvent the wheel, in order to fix what is wrong with our immigration system.
I hope that explains my position somewhat better.
I agree Larry, the system is not totally broke, it just isn’t being enforced. Illegal immigrants started leaving Arizona for other states that were more illegal friendly before the law went into effect. This shows us that enforcement would work if it was tried. From this we can guess that if the federal government got serious about immigration and enforced federal law (which mirrors the Arizona law) that illegals would begin to leave for countries that were more friendly– in other words, many of them would go home on their own. This means we would not need a complete overhaul, just a little enforcement. We could then see the results of this and move forwar if need be.
Thanks, Larry. As I told Matt below, I think we come to the same conclusion and express it differently. The biggest truth for me is that, anytime you have existing remedies and choose not to enforce them, then the system is broken. Not the underlying law, but the system.
You have a point, Laurie. I could have worded that statement more clearly.
First, congrats to Larry on a great post.
Laurie, I have to agree with the others in that they system isn’t broken. It simply isn’t being implemented. There are laws on the books, including those that penalize businesses that hire illegals. I’ll all for punishing people that are essentially aiding and abetting illegal immigration. I can’t see that you’d find much of an argument here against that. This is a problem that has to be attacked from multiple angles.
We’re dealing with the reality that neither party has had the political will to enforce the laws that we have. I can’t say that we can condemn the system if it isn’t being followed. To say that is like saying you have a crappy car, when you’ve never put the keys in the ignition.
Thanks for the comment, Matt and good analogy.
We’re essentially saying the same thing, Matt. If I knew a family that rejected a car without ever putting the key in the ignition, I wouldn’t say that the car was broken-I’d insist that the family was off their rocker! But I get the analogy.
BTW: Just heard a small snippet of Obama’s speech-very small, but loaded.
To paraphrase, he said that we need to provide a legal way for companies to hire the labor they need and then of course he went on to say that we need a path towards citizenship for the workers.
All this does for me is prove my point: I don’t care which party is at the head, the balance seems to be tipped toward the profits of the companies…And sure, the workers. But if the goverment simply says “no” to importing labor, then the workers wouldn’t be an issue, yes? I don’t see a huge difference in this suggested way forward than what President Bush wanted, and again-the “bad actors” are the ones that are represented, not the majority of Americans.
I honestly think that until the majority political strategy is to tell the companies to hire from the pool of unemployed Americans, nothing will ever change. But there isn’t a politician in our country with the courage to do that. Corporations-1. American budget-0.
BTW, I forgot to mention that Gallup released new data in the past week. The population, identifies itself as follows:
Liberal: 20%
Moderate or independent: 40%
Conservative: 40%
11 -12 million new Democrat voters might just correct that imbalance, wouldn’t they?
Last year, the data suggested that around 60% of the moderates/independents were trending to the right. I didn’t get into the internals of the new data, but Gallup may release it separately.
Great post as always Larry . Sorry I haven’t been around much but my works hours have been crazy. I’ll keep this as basic as possible. The federal government has a constitutional responsibility to protect its citizens. They have failed to do this by leaving our borders unsecure. This is the first step they must take. The second step is enforce the current immigration laws on the books. Let’s see where that leads and then if there needs to be an adjustment, we adjust. Maybe it’s that simple.
Thanks, John and thanks for the comment. I know all about those crazy work hours.
The failure you speak of is exactly why state and local governments across the country are passing their own illegal immigration laws.