President Obama has made headlines by announcing a new policy, effective immediately, which will allow the children of undocumented immigrant parents to attain legal documentation provided that they meet certain criteria.
Setting aside for a moment the fact that the President completely made an end run around Congress on this, there is a very real and sadly craven political motivation on the part of the President. Up and coming Senator Marco Rubio has proposed a piece of legislation which would essentially accomplish a similar aim, except it is in the form of legislation and its passage would not spark a constitutional crisis. The same cannot be said for President Obama’s clearly cynical ploy to get Hispanic votes in an election year. If he was truly sincere he would have done this for all of those immigrants who were deported over the past three years. However, the myth of Obama is so strong that very few people know that he has actually deported more immigrants over the past three years than President George W. Bush did in all eight of his.
The real reason that President Obama has made this decision is to get one up [1] on Senator Rubio and appeal to a voting bloc that he is desperate to line up in this year’s election.
Senator Rubio has responded [2], pointing out that the President has opted for a temporary solution rather than following a legislative reform that would bear more permanence.The difference between what Senator Rubio has been trying to do and what President Obama did with this order is that Rubio has risked valuable political capital within his party in order to move forward with a reform that would both be lawful and effective in protecting those who did not choose to be undocumented. Obama has not risked anything, on the contrary, the late nature of this order and the unconstitutional manner in which he has carried it out does not demonstrate and act of courage, but of cowardice.