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President Barack Obama knows what he wants from Congress regarding immigration reform. What he hasnt figured out is how to get it. Obama has tried negotiating from a position of strength, blaming, cajoling and strong-arming by using his executive authority all without success.

Now he is again threatening unilateral executive action to shield up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. That would be an enormous, and enormously unwise, step, likely to prompt the opposite of the response he seeks from Congress.

The president is justifiably impatient with Capitol Hills seemingly perpetual cycle of inaction. Republicans have refused to budge on any talk of comprehensive immigration reform, arguing that the border must be secured first. Democrats have avoided immigration like the plague because they perceive it as a no-win topic at the ballot box. Neither side wants to risk being tagged as pro-amnesty or weak on border security.

Thus the cycle of nonstop can-kicking on immigration. If its an election year, forget about it. If its an off year, action gets postponed because theres always something more pressing to debate, such as the economic crisis, Obamacare, the budget or the debt ceiling, to name a few top excuses.

Obamas executive-action threat, however, risks creating yet another reason for Congress to justify delaying action.

He insists that any executive decree would be canceled once superseding legislation is passed by Congress. That sounds great in theory. In practice, unilateral executive action of the magnitude the White House proposes will lead to GOP counterthreats of lawsuits, impeachment maneuvers and even another government shutdown. Under this scenario, the last thing Congress would focus on is immigration reform.

This newspaper understands Obamas frustration, as we did when President George W. Bush worked hard but failed to break a similar congressional logjam with his landmark 2007 comprehensive reform package. Still, unilateral executive action is not the answer.

The problem is with a White House unwilling to play ball and a Congress unwilling to tackle this contentious issue head-on. Obama can help ease the gridlock by stipulating that the GOP won the November elections and that their concerns over border security must be addressed first.

By doing so, he immediately could place the onus on GOP leaders. They would be pressed to define:

What border security actually means.

Originally posted here:
Editorial: Executive action on immigration a bad move for Obama