Immigration Reform

President Obamas zigs and zags in pursuit of immigration reform are a long-unfolding narrative now assuming epic dimensions. In the latest installment, Obama has postponed the unilateral reforms he promised to have unveiled by now. He did so not for any high-minded purpose but rather to avoid dealing mortal blows to the re-election of a handful of Democratic senators who begged the president to hold off.

Thus has subverting immigration reform become a bipartisan project advanced by Republicans, who despise the idea of putting millions of Hispanics on a path to citizenship, and by Democrats, who like it but fear the political fallout.

Obama insists that congressional inaction justifies his determination to take matters into his own hands and refashion enforcement of the nations laws to his liking. In his view, executive action is warranted by legislative paralysis; he alone will determine (though not quite yet) the breadth and depth of changes that could affect the status of millions of undocumented immigrants.

The presidents goals are right; his method, depending on how far he goes, seems ill-advised. Until he outlines his legal justification, if he eventually proceeds unilaterally as promised, no firm judgment can be offered. But his options seem limited if he intends to carry out the sort of sweeping changes that advocates of reform are counting on.

Just a year ago, Obama told an interviewer that it would be very difficult to defend legally any move to shield large numbers of additional illegal immigrants from deportation as he did in 2012 for so-called Dreamers undocumented migrants brought to this country as children.

Other ways for the president to protect immigrants from deportation, including granting administrative parole, have never been used and are not intended for huge categories of millions of individuals facing possible deportation.

Whether Obama may be able to make stick such a blanket change in enforcement is one question; he probably can. A separate question is whether its wise.

His decision to postpone an action he promised for the end of the summer, for fear of the electoral fallout, underscores the enormity of the likely political backlash. By ignoring Congress and sidestepping normal procedures the same procedures he himself followed for several years in hopes for immigration reform Obama does the nation no favors.

We share the presidents conviction that the immigration system is a mess; that Congress specifically, House Republicans has abdicated its responsibility and defied popular will by refusing to fix it; and that the status quo of 11 million undocumented immigrants is economically self-defeating.

But rewriting the law unilaterally in defiance of Congress and on dubious legal grounds, even after the midterm elections, will not ultimately serve the cause of durable reform. It is more likely to ignite a political firestorm that will give the upper hand to immigration restrictionists, who would use it for years to justify resistance to reform. For the president, that would be a pyrrhic victory indeed.

See the article here:
Immigration Reform

September 22nd, 2014

Comments off

In tight Senate races, immigration could still be a priority issue

When the U.S. Senate race in Arkansas heated up this summer, Mark Pryor found himself under attack from his opponent with a nasty and inaccurate ad claiming that the Democrat had supported giving Social Security benefits to people who had forged identities to work in the U.S. illegally. In Georgia, Democratic candidate Michelle Nunn has been fending off charges that she is "pro-amnesty."

And here in New Hampshire, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen saw her reelection race tighten after Republican Scott Brown launched a barrage of ads faulting her 2010 vote for the Dream Act, which would have granted legal status to some young immigrants.

Earlier this month, Obama acceded to pleas from a number of vulnerable Democrats to delay until after the November election his promise to use executive power to transform the nation's immigration system. Though the delay angered some activists, many Democrats in tight races were relieved, hoping that his announcement would cool some of the heat of an issue that could energize the GOP base, particularly in states with low numbers of Latino voters.

But Republicans insist that immigration remains a potent issue in many contested Senate races. The president, they note, merely postponed his threat to use his executive power, and could well grant legal status to as many as several million people now here illegally. Though it is Republicans who have stalled immigration reform in the House, they believe Obama's delay has given them a new opening to attack Democrats for addressing issues affecting Latinos only when it is politically convenient. Potentially at stake is control of the Senate, which Republicans will seize if they gain six seats.

Days after the White House announced the delay, Brown laced into Obama and Shaheen in his primary night victory speech in New Hampshire, faulting their "failed policies on immigration" for the surge of unaccompanied minors who came across the border from Central America. (He did not mention that a law encouraging unaccompanied minors to seek refuge in the U.S. passed under President Bush, a fellow Republican.)

"A nation without borders is not a nation at all," Brown said as he previewed his case against Democratic incumbent Shaheen in a state where a mere 3.2% of the population is Latino. "In Washington, what are they doing? They're only inviting more chaos at the border by creating amnesty."

"You have someone before you who will do everything in my power to secure our borders," Brown said to cheers in Concord, "to make sure that you, and everybody else, is safe and secure when you travel around our country."

Those kinds of lines are playing well for Republicans in competitive Senate races across the country, where the midterm electorate is typically more white and conservative than in presidential years.

Some Republican strategists fear that the hard line adopted by Republicans such as Brown and Tom Cotton, who is running against incumbent Pryor in Arkansas, could further alienate the GOP from Latino voters, who are key to their hopes of regaining the White House in 2016.

But demographics are on their side this year. Latinos make up 5% or less of eligible voters in eight of nine keenly watched Senate races: Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan and North Carolina. The lone exception is Colorado, where 14.2% of eligible voters are Latino, making it the one contested state where Obama's delay in fulfilling his promise could actually hurt the Democrat, incumbent Mark Udall.

Follow this link:
In tight Senate races, immigration could still be a priority issue

September 21st, 2014

Comments off

Green resigns at Zuckerberg's FWD.us

FWD.us President Joe Green has resigned as head of the tech-backed immigration reform group, according to a blog post from the organization.

Green had led FWD.us since its founding in 2013 as tech leaders poured millions into the immigration advocacy group started by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Greens departure comes as congressional efforts to reform the nations immigration laws have stagnated. And President Barack Obama has said executive action on that front will wait until after the midterms.

Re/code, which first revealed Greens departure, reported that he was pushed out of the top spot.

While FWD.us has achieved important milestones in the fight to reform immigration laws, Joe and the Board agreed a change in leadership was necessary, the group wrote in the Friday blog post.

A FWD.us spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment.

Todd Schulte, the groups executive director and former chief of staff at super PAC Priorities USA, will serve as acting president.

Obama is expected to unveil a broad immigration reform executive order after the November elections, but the exact scope of that effort remains unclear. Tech companies are seeking more visas for high-skilled foreign workers.

See the original post here:
Green resigns at Zuckerberg's FWD.us

September 21st, 2014

Comments off