Finally, Mr. President, Finally!

By Dr. Henry Flores, NewsTaco

Don’t you just love it?  President Obama has finally made a definitive statement about immigration and it incensed Republicans.  The president’s position didn’t make everyone happy but at least it’s a step in the right direction.  The politics are interesting as well in that it places Republicans in a delicate position just when they win effective control of the national legislature.

Obama’s Immigration Policy 

What the president proposed the other evening was a mixed bag of policies that allows a certain number of undocumented persons to obtain Social Security cards, work legally and not be worried of being deported every time they venture from their homes to buy a loaf of bread.  Many of these individuals, somewhere between 4 and 5 million persons have lived in the United States more than five years and have given up any expectations of returning to their native lands.  These people have become productive residents of this country sometimes working at two or three jobs to provide for their families.  Their children were born in the United States and are citizens and are being socialized into our national culture.  Many of these folks are homeowners, pay taxes, attend PTA meetings, attend and contribute to churches of all denominations.  Some have served our country in the military evening paying the ultimate price in their service.

The president’s executive order will not cover the parents of DREAMers, those young folks who were brought here as children by their parents and have gone through or are going through our educational system.  The president’s executive order did not provide amnesty or a pathway to citizenship for anyone.  President Obama also reallocated more resources for border security along the southern frontier.  Finally, the president said that if the Republicans were so concerned about his action then they needed to get to work and pass their own legislation.

The Republican Response 

Well, they have none, except for a great deal of mean, angry sound bites about how the president acted illegally, overstepping his executive powers, even acted “imperially.”  Outgoing US Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn) even went so far as stating that the president’s action was simply another way of importing more “illiterate Democratic” voters.  Another is calling for the president’s impeachment, the grounds are not clear.  Finally, Rep. John Boehner pointed out that the president’s actions “poisoned the waters” killing all possibility of the development of a bipartisan immigration bill.  Really?  Really?  Didn’t the US Senate pass a bipartisan immigration bill almost two years ago that Mr. Boehner’s house didn’t even bother considering?

The Politics of What Happened? 

I think the timing of President Obama’s action is interesting.  As we say down here in Texas he “gave the Republicans enough rope and they hanged themselves.”  The Republicans just won control of both chambers of the legislature, Obama only has two years (substantively much less) to govern, and, as leader of his party, needs to do something to help Democrats win back the Senate if not the House of Representatives in 2016.  So a combination of the Republican’s inability and unwillingness to pass immigration legislation and his use of his executive powers plus the timing actually has many political advantages for him.  The president’s action dares Republicans to spend valuable time attacking him on an issue important to the Latino electorate.  Republicans need to be careful how they launch this attack because to do so in a manner that is ugly and mean-spirited will push Latino voters further into the arms of the Democratic Party and worse energize them in future elections.  If you recall this is how Republicans lost California.

The timeliness of President Obama’s action also causes chaos among Republicans because the rational ones among the leadership see the precariousness of the situation and know they need to tread lightly or else their party will suffer some dire electoral consequences in future elections.  The “crazies” among the Republican leadership sees this situation as a way to bring down the president once and for all destroying any chance of him leaving a positive legacy.  These folks don’t even want a trace of a black president left when the Obama’s leave the “White House.”  In short, Obama has Republicans fighting among themselves which, if the fight gets out of hand, will strategically weaken the GOP just in time for the 2016 elections.

Henry Flores, PhD, is a Distinguished University Research Professor, Institute of Public Administration and Public Service; Director, Masters in Public Administration (MPA); Professor of International Relations and Political Science at St. Mary’s University.