Young Immigrants Turn Focus to President in Struggle Over Deportations
On February 23, hundreds of foreign-born youths from across the nation rallied and protested against President Obama’s apparent inaction in resolving the crackdown on undocumented immigrants that has characterized his administration. While the President’s official position on immigration reform has generally been one of sympathy and integration, his aspirations have been largely stifled by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Last year, the Senate passed a comprehensive reform bill that had the potential to be a momentous development for the civil rights and liberties of immigrants in the United States. The bill, entitled the “Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013”, sought to establish a five-year route to lawful permanent residence, followed by citizenship, for illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. Unfortunately, the current speaker of the House recently announced that his caucus was not ready to settle the issue this year, a decision that many perceive as an underhanded effort to shelve the bill until it loses relevancy.
In response to this profound blow, many members of the immigrant community have chosen to shift the focus of their discontent to President Obama, placing the onus of reform exclusively on his shoulders. Their protests concentrate on coercing the president into taking executive and/or unilateral actions to provide greater protections and opportunities for the undocumented, much like he did in 2012 when he instituted the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. This program provided deferrals for over half a million illegal minors, affording them the right to obtain legal employment and driver’s licenses in specific states. While Obama maintains that he lacks the legal sanction to allow for any more of these deferrals, he remains outwardly devoted to immigration reform. http://nyti.ms/1fvaQ9C
Much of immigration policy is in the hands of the executive branch. For instance, Obama Administration has deported unprecedented numbers of immigrants – 400,000 a year. That has nothing to do with Congress but is the decision of the administration. For this reason, Obama has been called Deporter-in-Chief.
It is true that the executive branch has a lot of power in using existing laws to focus on whatever concerns they find appropriate, but they don’t have nearly as much influence in changing the laws. Even though Obama has deported over 400,000 immigrants a year, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act to pass. For one, Obama is a liberal and has supported undocumented immigrants on many occasions such as support for the Dream Act. Secondly, Obama and the whole Democratic party could gain strong political support if they were able to naturalize these undocumented immigrants. For these reasons, I believe Obama’s inaction is more due to the lack of systematic influence as opposed to his beliefs.
It is unfortunate we don’t have a political system like Britain where one party controls everything for a period of time. I agree with Nir and Christopher that this is an underhanded attempt by Boehner to shelve the bill.
Still so long as the BSEOIM (border security, economic opportunity, and immigration modernization)act remains unpassed, Obama has a job to do, and he is doing it.