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Immigration must be a frustrating subject for President Obama. Hes been battling Republicans those in Congress, and those trying to take his job in 2012 for years.

But now, one senses a sort of serenity about immigration for Obama.

He never has to run for election again. And the newly-powerful GOP on Capitol Hill has yet to sort itself out on a clear immigration policy and message not least because it has at least three US Senators with strong presidential ambitions (Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul).

Remember how Republican presidential hopefuls two years ago got twisted up trying to out-tough-guy each other on illegal immigrants? Mitt Romneys self-deportation was classic. When Rick Perry tried to explain state tuition breaks for young illegal immigrants in Texas, the others pounced.

As Newt Gingrich said at the time, Its a very complicated situation.

Today, of course, its only gotten more complicated. Meanwhile, Republican Party leaders know they need to do a lot better attracting Latino voters, the great majority of whom (71-27 percent) went for Obama over Romney two years ago.

Soon, Obama is expected to issue an executive order removing the threat of deportation for upward of 5 million immigrants in the US illegally mainly the parents of children born in this country and therefore US citizens.

Since the US Department of Homeland Security has the resources to deport only a few hundred thousand illegal immigrants a year (of the estimated 11 million in the country today), the order in essence would move those 5 million to the bottom of the list of those eligible for deportation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and some other Democrats say Obamas promised executive action on immigration should wait until Congress passes a funding bill, which would avert another government shutdown.

But immigration reform advocates argue otherwise, and the recent midterm election may have pushed Obama to move sooner rather than later.

Read more from the original source:
Nothing to lose on immigration, Obama pushes ahead on his own (+video)

Immigration must be a frustrating subject for President Obama. Hes been battling Republicans those in Congress, and those trying to take his job in 2012 for years.

But now, one senses a sort of serenity about immigration for Obama.

He never has to run for election again. And the newly-powerful GOP on Capitol Hill has yet to sort itself out on a clear immigration policy and message not least because it has at least three US Senators with strong presidential ambitions (Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Rand Paul).

Remember how Republican presidential hopefuls two years ago got twisted up trying to out-tough-guy each other on illegal immigrants? Mitt Romneys self-deportation was classic. When Rick Perry tried to explain state tuition breaks for young illegal immigrants in Texas, the others pounced.

As Newt Gingrich said at the time, Its a very complicated situation.

Today, of course, its only gotten more complicated. Meanwhile, Republican Party leaders know they need to do a lot better attracting Latino voters, the great majority of whom (71-27 percent) went for Obama over Romney two years ago.

Soon, Obama is expected to issue an executive order removing the threat of deportation for upward of 5 million immigrants in the US illegally mainly the parents of children born in this country and therefore US citizens.

Since the US Department of Homeland Security has the resources to deport only a few hundred thousand illegal immigrants a year (of the estimated 11 million in the country today), the order in essence would move those 5 million to the bottom of the list of those eligible for deportation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and some other Democrats say Obamas promised executive action on immigration should wait until Congress passes a funding bill, which would avert another government shutdown.

But immigration reform advocates argue otherwise, and the recent midterm election may have pushed Obama to move sooner rather than later.

Originally posted here:
Nothing to lose on immigration, Obama pushes ahead on his own

In contrast to the midterm elections, Democrats are closing ranks around President Barack Obama in anticipation of him using his presidential pen to act on immigration.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was lead signatory on a letter from him and five other Senate Democrats urging Obama to act.

"Because House Republicans have not acted, we fully support your decision to use your well-established executive authority to improve as much of the immigration system as you can," the letter states.

House Democrats had sent a similar letter last week signed by 117 House Democrats.

Obama had planned to announce executive action at the end of summer but that plan has been on hold for about three months after Democratic Senate candidates became fearful the issue would hurt their campaigns. Democrats failed to keep control of the Senate anyway.

There was some expectation the president might wait until after Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu's Dec. 6 election runoff against GOP Rep. Bill Cassidy. A key issue in their campaign is expansion of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which has been on hold. The House voted to allow expansion to move forward and the Senate was to vote Tuesday evening.

Republicans have threatened to counter any action taken by the president with ideas floated from using the appropriations process to curb his actions to impeachment. Some Hispanic Republican activists have said the president should wait but also said the GOP needs to put up an alternative proposal.

In an interview with NBC News, Sen. Bob Menendez, who also signed the letter, said it was outrageous for Republicans to suggest Obama is "poisoning the well" for future immigration reform legislation when the House GOP failed to advance any legislation this past session. Obama refused to take any executive action during that time hoping to see the GOP House pass its own bills.

"I hope our community wakes up to the reality of who the people are that are creating obstacles," said Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, who signed the Senate letter supporting Obama on executive action over Republican objections.

"They are the ones that went to the community and said, "See Obama lied to you," yet they are the very ones who didn't vote for immigration reform and who oppose executive action. I hope our community wakes up to the reality of who the people are that are creating obstacles," said Menendez, who has for many months urged Obama to take bold action.

Originally posted here:
Dems: We Back Obama on Immigration Action

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor's note: Ruben Navarrette is a CNN contributor and a nationally syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group. Follow him on Twitter: @rubennavarrette. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) -- Like misery, failure loves company. Look at the immigration debate and how both liberals and conservatives -- and elected officials in both parties -- bungle it.

President Barack Obama has failed on immigration policy. But now that he appears to be poised to take executive action to fix some of what's broken with the country's immigration system, Republicans in Congress sound like they're about to overreact and join him in that failure.

Conservatives love to stir their flock by pushing the narrative that Obama is a staunch supporter of "amnesty" and that the President has always been in lockstep with immigration reform advocates.

Ruben Navarrette Jr.

That's fiction. It's been a rocky relationship. That's because Obama belongs to that wing of the Democratic Party that hasn't been interested in legalizing the undocumented and creating more competition in the job market for U.S. workers.

Obama broke his campaign promise to make reform a top issue and eroded trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement by expanding 100-fold the program known as Secure Communities, which ropes local police into enforcing federal immigration law. He tried to fend off critics who wanted him to slow deportations by claiming that he didn't have the power to act "as a king," only to later flip-flop and do just that during his 2012 re-election campaign when he unveiled Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Obama deported a record 2 million people in five years, divided hundreds of thousands of families, failed to deal effectively with thousands of child refugees who streamed across the U.S.-Mexico border last summer and then broke another promise when he said he would take executive action on immigration before the midterm elections but blinked.

Now, according to news reports that look like a trial balloon from the White House, Obama might, as early as this week, take unilateral action to offer several million illegal immigrants a temporary reprieve from deportation and perhaps even give some of them work permits.

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Immigration isn't impeachable offense

Krauthammer: Obama Exec. Amnesty #39;An Impeachable Offense #39;
Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer said President Obama #39;s plan to take executive action on immigration reform that would grant amnesty to 5 million people would be "an impeachable...

By: Washington Free Beacon

Original post:
Krauthammer: Obama Exec. Amnesty 'An Impeachable Offense' - Video