Obama Risks It All

The speech that Barack Obama made on Friday is one of the most important and dramatic moments of his presidency. The American leader, operating on the edge of the law, decided arbitrarily to resolve one of the key problems of his country — the issue of millions of illegal immigrants.

The dispute about what to do with 11 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. has lasted for years.

We Are All Immigrants

Republicans claim that their formal acceptance of Obama’s order would be a sign of weakness and unforgivable clearance to break the law. It might also serve as encouragement for more people from all over the world to cross the border from Mexico or to come pretending to be tourists, because sooner or later they will be forgiven and be accepted by America.

Obama replied to all that yesterday, “We are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. And whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, or what our last names are, or how we worship. What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.”

Opponents of the amnesty fear that the newcomers will take jobs away from U.S. citizens. Meanwhile, Obama underlined yesterday that the influx of immigrants strengthens America.

“For more than 200 years, our tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world has given us a tremendous advantage over other nations. It’s kept us youthful, dynamic and entrepreneurial. It has shaped our character as a people with limitless possibilities. People not trapped by our past, but able to remake ourselves as we choose.”

The order, which Obama critics call dictatorial, kingly and emperor-like, will protect 5 million people from deportation and, more importantly, will give them the right to legally work in U.S.

It applies to those immigrants who have resided in America for at least five years and who have a child who is an American citizen — born in the U.S. However, their status is not final but only temporary. The president ordered the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to refrain from deporting this particular group of people for the next three years.

Therefore it is not a change of law, which would require a bill to be approved in the Congress, but a hold in law abidance for 5 million people. Is such a thing acceptable?

Republicans emphasize that the U.S. Constitution says, “the president must take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” If he publicly announces that he will not do this, it means that he is breaking the Constitution. And if so, he can be disciplinarily recalled from office. Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks even claims that Obama can go to jail.

The White House treats the order completely differently, not as a “suspension of the law,” but as a “change of priorities in law abidance.”

After all, the prosecuting authorities — the police and USCIS — have limited capacity and means. There is no realistic chance they would be able to catch all the criminals; they cannot catch all people who have committed a crime. They will not deport 11 million people. In practice, they need to set priorities, like traffic policemen not stopping drivers who exceed the speed limit by, say, three miles per hour, but rather targeting those who break the limit in a drastic way.

Is Obama a King?

USCIS will not chase those 5 million people to whom Obama gave unofficial amnesty, but instead will focus on more important matters; that is, the rapid arrest and deportation of immigrants who commit crimes.

Republicans see such interpretation of presidential decree as mockery and scandal. Famous rightist columnist Charles Krauthammer jokes that, in this case, a future Republican president could order the IRS to stop chasing people who do not pay income tax from capital income (from shares on the stock exchange.) This way American millionaires, without changing the law, would actually be free from paying taxes! Then what would the left say, which complains that one percent of the richest Americans get richer at the expense of everyone else?

Of course, the left would object that such a drastic change of social agreement could be accepted only in the form of a bill in the Congress. The right says the same thing — that such an important issue as illegal immigrants can be resolved only by the Congress, and confirmed by the president’s signature afterward.

The presidential decree, according to the right, is especially outrageous two weeks after the great Republican victory in the midterm congressional elections, which can be treated as a no-confidence vote for Obama himself. Why does the president, who does not have society’s support, command as a king?

Obama replied to that by saying, “I tried to go the normal path thorough the Congress, but Republicans blocked it. I will not wait any longer!”*

Last year the Senate accepted a bill on immigration reform that would legalize eight million people — and would also annul visas for Poles. But the Republican-oriented House did not even vote on the bill; it was forgotten. Presently, after elections, Republicans will have the majority in both chambers of Congress, so there is no chance for the bill.

What do Americans think of it all? A Wall Street Journal poll shows that 57 percent of people agree to give illegal immigrants the opportunity of citizenship — 40 percent is against that. But only 37 percent want the president to act in this matter on his own, without looking to Congress — 48 percent is against. Therefore, Americans want amnesty for illegal immigrants, but they do not like the method by which it was carried out.

* Editor’s note: The original quotation, accurately translated, could not be verified.