Obama on Immigration: It’s the Legacy, Stupid
Lost amidst the uproar over President Obama’s unilateral action on immigration is the real reason he did it.
While Obama has always favored an amnesty of some sort, supported the senate immigration bill that never came to a vote in the house, and is perfectly happy to further strengthen his party’s already strong support among hispanics, this is a president on a big time losing streak with little more left to lose.
He has been repudiated at the ballot box, plagued by one scandal after another, exhausted by six years in office and constant battles with the GOP, isolated in the White House even by his own party as they move on to preparations for 2016 and most importantly, is a very lame duck with no remaining political capital who will never face the voters again. So what becomes the focus for presidents in such a position?
Legacy.
Of course, almost nothing Obama does will supplant the legacy assured when he first took the oath of office and became America’s first black president. Obamacare will certainly follow right behind, but it seems clear that this president, who did not see fit to place immigration on the front burner when he was at the height of his political power, apparently wants to make historic immigration reform the coda of his legacy. So why not go it alone and dare the GOP to do something about it. You have to admire his political boldness.
And you know what? He will probably get away with this. He is rightly confident that neither the congress nor future presidents are likely to order increased deportation, if only for political reasons. And the GOP is making no move to counter his action.
The president employed another element of his legacy – that of an accomplished orator – to craft a pitch perfect sales job of a plan that seemed reasonable, appealing to the best instincts of the people with talk of all-American values. He did not focus on government largesse, but instead spun the stories of people who just want to work hard and succeed the same as all of us. Good speech, but much to the chagrin of he and his supporters, speechifying is not governing.
Lots of people have weighed in on the president’s decision to act unilaterally on immigration, and how those actions may well exceed the scope of his authority. As well they should. In a carefully prepared justification for his action, the Justice Department released a document to entitled “The Department of Homeland Security’s Authority to Prioritize Removal of Certain Aliens Unlawfully Present in the United States and to Defer Removal of Others.” That mouthful means to provide legal cover for the president.
But now we must focus on how Republicans should respond – not just with defiant rhetoric but actual policy. It is time for the GOP to get real on immigration. Democrats are wrong for wanting to just declare millions of people here illegally as legal with the wave of the president’s hand, but the GOP will now be forced to take some action to fix a system that is a disgrace not because of the laws on the books, but because those laws are not enforced. The American people have almost zero confidence in the system, and real leadership on the issue will constitute much more than pointing out that Obama is a bad man.
Immigration was a central issue in at least a half dozen states in the mid term elections, and Republicans won all of those races – every one of them. People really care about this issue, but what was their message? That they want the Republican leadership to do nothing about the problem? Or that they want them to do something? Simple logic dictates that when people are angry, they want something done. This is not rocket science.
The day after Obama’s speech, a headline on Drudge read “O-WHIPPED: REPUBLICANS LEAVE TOWN WITHOUT PLAN” – and that is from Breitbart. Check out this fairly long piece from Bloomberg which is entirely devoted to the absolute refusal of longtime Kansas Rep. Tim Huelskamp, like the great bulk of his colleagues, to articulate any alternative to what the president proposed. Securing the borders is rightfully the top priority, but doing so to the exclusion of articulating a real policy alternative looks just like what it was – a dodge. Bloomberg titled the piece “Watch a Republican Congressman Sidestep a Straightforward Question About Immigration”
Politically, the president would have been better served by throwing an olive branch and at least feigning negotiation with Congress for a period of time before taking executive action. He could have laid out his plan and issued a challenge – if the new Congress and I cannot work out a solution in six months, this is what I will enact. Instead, Obama has poisoned the atmosphere before the new members get to town, and assured a confrontational environment for the next two years.
One strongly suspects, however, that he doesn’t care. Because this is all about his legacy. Obama has never been one to put his party before his personal priorities, and he has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to, um, interpret his executive authority quite liberally.
Politically he is in the same position as Bush 43 after the last Congress of his presidency was elected – isolated by the opposing party, shunned by his own party, and looking almost exclusively toward his legacy. Best evidence of Obama’s Bush-like irrelevance is that his speech outlining distinct action on one of the most important and divisive issues in the eyes of voters was not even aired by ABC/NBC/CBS. It is hard to imagine they wouldn’t have done so in the first six years of his presidency.
On the matter of why this president did not propose meaningful immigration legislation when the Democrats controlled the whole Congress from 2009 to 2011, he did not because he knew what he wanted was bitterly divisive , and he had to expend virtually all his political capital on health care. That is obviously why he waited until after this election. With no campaigns left to run, he doesn’t need to care about what’s popular. His willingness to proceed absent any precedent or authorization combined with a credulous press now leaves the field open for mischief by future presidents willing to use Obama’s action on immigration as an excuse to expand the bounds of executive power.
Obama’s plan might go down more easily if it included both carrot and stick. Illegals get to stay and have their immigration offenses forgiven – and that’s it. Where was the outlining of new and vigorous enforcement going forward? What if they don’t want to register? What reason did the President of the United States give for any illegal immigrants to change their behavior? Perhaps that is why there is such a large disconnect between what people say they support and the Obama action. A clear majority of Americans actually support most of the things Obama plans to do, but are not supportive of the president or his plan. That would translate to a general wariness about his means and motives.
Sen. Rand Paul tweeted that he will not sit idly by while the president bypasses Congress and the Constitution. Can we count on him and his colleagues to fix the mess? That’s where we run into a little problem called the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. What do they have to do with this? Well, unlike the Democrats who weigh in on the side of amnesty or earned citizenship depending on your perspective, and the Republican party which really does want to secure the border above all else, the Chamber, which represents big business, wants to do…nothing.
Nothing. Why? Well, it could only be for one reason – its members benefit from the labor of illegal immigrants. If these people come out of the shadows, they’ll have to be paid more and strict enforcement means penalties for businesses that hire illegals. And so, the US Chamber of Commerce with its deep ties and major support for the Republican party, has pushed the GOP to just make immigration reform go away. Republicans cozy with the Chamber often say they want some kind of reform, but they have done almost nothing to demonstrate it.
The Republicans need to do more than simply attack Obama’s promise of executive action on immigration and its dubious constitutionality. They need to come up with ideas and legislation of their own that will make the angry voters believe they’re committed to the three things the great majority of people want: securing the border, welcoming those who want to come here, play by the rules and be productive, and deporting those who want to game the system.
It’s called carrot and stick, and and it won’t work if you don’t have both. The Democrats have the carrot part down and the Republicans are good with the stick. But only a solution that can bypass Obama’s legacy-building and imperial instincts as well as the Chamber of Commerce’s heavy hand in stopping any reform – will actually restore faith in the system.
