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White House staffers have spent August deliberating about what should go into the executive order the president is expected to issue after Labor Day: his do-it-yourself, go-it-alone version of immigration reform. The smart money is betting that the president will grant some sort of temporary legal status to as many as 4 million unauthorized immigrants.

This would be a huge relief for those who qualify and their families. There wont be a path to citizenship only Congress can provide that. But together with the presidents 2012 memo granting legal status to young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children, it could allow more than a third of the nations unauthorized immigrants to remain in the country and work legally without fear of being deported.

Immigrant rights advocates will be thrilled. Though they would like the number to be bigger, this is the fix theyve been fighting for, in some cases for more than a decade. But is it really a solution? The answer, sadly, is no.

An executive order mandating legalization alone wont address whats wrong with the immigration system. The danger is that once President Barack Obama acts, that may be the end of what Washington does to address the issue this year or for many years to come.

One-time legalization would do nothing to tackle the underlying cause: the dynamic that draws immigrants to come to the U.S. illegally in the first place supply and demand. Most people come to work, drawn by our need to fill jobs for which there are no willing and able Americans.

Some of these jobs require highly skilled employees Ph.D. scientists or IT technicians. But the overwhelming majority are for low-skilled workers: physically demanding, often outdoor work that holds little appeal, at any economically plausible wage, for increasingly educated American workers.

The problem is that under current law there is virtually no legal way for less-skilled foreigners to enter the country to work in year-round jobs. Because they cant get in the front door, they come through the back door illegally.

Obama is not the first policymaker to have trouble grasping this reality. Washington made exactly the same mistake once before, with the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.

In the 1980s, as over the past decade, many reformers argued that any overhaul should include three core components: tougher enforcement of immigration law, some kind of legalization or regularization for immigrants living in the country illegally and changes to the legal immigration system including more worker visas to prevent future illegal immigration.

Immigrant rights advocates called for regularization in those days, it was officially called amnesty and they had the political power to back their demands. Then as today, immigration hawks drove a hard bargain: no amnesty without beefed-up enforcement and they had the muscle to get most of what they wanted.

Continued here:
Obama's 'go it alone' immigration reform is a mistake

Aug 28, 2014 3:06pm

WASHINGTON, D.C. For the second time in a month, progressive activists disillusioned with the Obama administrations immigration policies intentionally had themselves arrested outside the White House in what they called an act of civil disobedience.

The highly choreographed sit-in, organized by a coalition of labor, immigration reform and religious groups, featured roughly 100 demonstrators who sat down on the sidewalk outside the presidents residence in an area already cordoned off by law enforcement.After several warnings from law enforcement officers on standby, the scores of protesters were peacefully detained for obstructing sidewalk traffic.

The demonstrators are demanding the federal government cease an estimated 1,000 deportations a day of undocumented immigrants, a number likely to rise as the administration grapples with a surge of thousands who have overwhelmed Southwest states in the last several months, creating a humanitarian crisis. The migrants come mostly from Central America, fleeing violence and epidemic poverty.

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Hundreds of their supporters looked on, waving picket signs that read Dont deport my dad, and, Immigration reform is obstructed by racism.

A mile away at a pre-rally outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency headquarters, organizers said the undocumented would have justice.

Seventeen American citizen children, today, will be losing their moms or dads for a senseless deportation system that ICE does on daily basis, said AFL-CIO executive vice president Tefere Gebre, The president can and will stop this. Yes, we can!

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Immigration Sit-In Outside White House Results in About 100 Arrests

Published August 31, 2014

President Obama is reportedly mulling the possibility of delaying making changes to U.S. immigration policy until after the upcoming midterm elections, after Democrats in tough Senate races have argued that it could damage their chances in November.

The president had been expected to use his executive authority to ease deportations and give temporary work permits to millions of illegal immigrants.

After Republicans in the House of Representatives voted down a version of immigration reform, Obama announced that he intended to act on his own before the end of summer in order to make what he said were urgent changes to the immigration system. Republicans claim that such moves would exceed his legal authority if he were to act without congressional approval.

However, The Wall Street Journal reports that White House officials are now debating whether to put off some or all of Obamas policy changes until after the November election, after several Democrats running in tight elections in conservative states have urged the president to do so, claiming that such a move would damage their election prospects.

Democratic Senators Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Kay Hagan in North Carolina, Mark Begich in Alaska and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, all have called for immigration reform to be addressed by Congress, not by the White House, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Obama said in a news conference Thursday that his timeline for immigration reform was unclear, and said that the child-migration crisis could affect the timing of any announcement.

"Some of these things do affect timelines, and we're just going to be working through as systematically as possible in order to get this done," Obama said.

Obama also faces pressure from immigrant-rights advocates strongly urging the president not to back down and to move forward as planned, especially as he has already delayed action once in 2014.

However, Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Mr. Obama's executive action on immigration would be unpopular no matter when he made it.

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Obama under pressure to delay immigration action until after midterms

At the beginning of the summer, President Obama said that he was directing his administration to come up with steps that he could take as president to deal with immigration issues in light of the fact that the House of Representatives had made it clear that it would not be acting on either the bill that the Senate passed last year or any other bill before the midterm elections. Almost immediately, the presidents announcement was cited by many on the right as another sign of the executive overreach that they have accused him of for several years now, and which is also the basis for the lawsuit that the House of Representative recently authorized to be filed against him. More recently, some members of Congress, most especially Sen. Ted Cruz (R) of Texas, hinted that if the president took any such action prior to the midterms, then Republicans in Congress would be forced to consider shutting down the government over the issue. Indeed, Senator Cruz himself had threatened such a shutdown earlier this summer, although he and other Republicans have backed off of that talk in recent weeks and have asserted that all of the talk of shutdowns is coming from Democrats.

On the other side of the political aisle, the pressures on President Obama have been pulling him in different directions. On the one side are the groups that have been pushing for immigration reform for some time now, including organized labor, and are now pressing him to at least do something similar to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that he announced last year. On the other side, though, are party officials and, especially, vulnerable Democrats, who are concerned that executive action announced before the midterm elections would only serve to increase turnout from those opposed to immigration reform. While its unclear what the president is going to do, there have been several recent hints from the White House that we shouldnt expect any action any time soon:

The White House has signaled that President Obamas pledge to reform the nations immigration system could happen later than the end of the summer, a deadline it set earlier this year.

Obama has pledged to circumvent Congress and unilaterally overhaul immigration, and has said previously that he would do so by the end of the summer. But he and other White House officials began suggesting in recent days that any action may happen later than planned.

During a news conference Thursday, Obama suggested that a flood of Central American children at the southwestern border, which peaked in the spring and is now abating, has had an impact on the potential timing of his decision.

Some of these things do affect timelines, and were just going to be working through as systematically as possible in order to get this done, he said.

A White House official said the timing of any potential action on immigration could influence migrations to the border.

When asked about a timeline Friday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest did not mention the end-of-summer deadline, which officials have been touting for weeks. But he also declined to say whether Obama would delay decisions on immigration until later this fall or after the November midterms.

Thats putting the cart before the horse, Earnest said.

Earnest said Obama has not yet received final recommendations from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on how to address the immigration issue. The White House had previously said that those recommendations were to be given to Obama by the end of summer.

Original post:
White House may hold off on immigration action until after election

Published August 31, 2014

President Obama is reportedly mulling the possibility of delaying making changes to U.S. immigration policy until after the upcoming midterm elections, after Democrats in tough Senate races have argued that it could damage their chances in November.

The president had been expected to use his executive authority to ease deportations and give temporary work permits to millions of illegal immigrants.

After Republicans in the House of Representatives voted down a version of immigration reform, Obama announced that he intended to act on his own before the end of summer in order to make what he said were urgent changes to the immigration system. Republicans claim that such moves would exceed his legal authority if he were to act without congressional approval.

However, The Wall Street Journal reports that White House officials are now debating whether to put off some or all of Obamas policy changes until after the November election, after several Democrats running in tight elections in conservative states have urged the president to do so, claiming that such a move would damage their election prospects.

Democratic Senators Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Kay Hagan in North Carolina, Mark Begich in Alaska and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire, all have called for immigration reform to be addressed by Congress, not by the White House, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Obama said in a news conference Thursday that his timeline for immigration reform was unclear, and said that the child-migration crisis could affect the timing of any announcement.

"Some of these things do affect timelines, and we're just going to be working through as systematically as possible in order to get this done," Obama said.

Obama also faces pressure from immigrant-rights advocates strongly urging the president not to back down and to move forward as planned, especially as he has already delayed action once in 2014.

However, Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said Mr. Obama's executive action on immigration would be unpopular no matter when he made it.

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Obama may delay immigration action until after midterms, report says - VIDEO: Obama weighs holding off on immigration