An Urgent Change

It’s not Obama but the whole country that is to blame for the paralysis of immigration reform.

Republicans have rejected voting on U.S. immigration reform in the House of Representatives, which makes it a dead end. To Barack Obama, it’s a frustration and a challenge. It’s a big frustration because this reform, along with the health care reform — for whose approval and implementation the Democratic president has lived through an entire nightmare — is part of the legacy that Obama wants to bequeath to American society. It’s a big challenge because the White House incumbent has made it clear — without trying to hide that he was angry with the Republicans — that he’s going to rule by decree of law for the last two remaining years of his term, which shows how far the disagreement between both political parties goes in a country where the political battle rarely has led to a total break in the common understanding.

The U.S. needs an urgent immigration reform. Eleven million people have rebuilt their lives and are waiting to be become legal in this country that was created and built by immigrants. Partially because of this government, the country has become a huge deportation mechanism, outnumbered by an increasing flood of immigrants. According to Vice President Joe Biden, 48,000 children have been detained this year when they were trying to cross the border. This number shows the current government is incompetent in dissuading those intending to go to north.

Far from rationally dealing with the problem, Republicans close their eyes to it and can’t see further than a short-term political battle. The Republican Party just needs to win six more seats in next November’s legislative elections to gain control of Congress — the House of Representatives and Senate. In addition, they think their voters want the Republican party to become more radical against the White House. The tea party, which intends to make the border impenetrable, gains support in a political party without any strong leader and one that is more focused on votes than the future of the country.

Despite what Republicans say, it’s not Obama but the whole country that is to blame for the paralysis in immigration reform. And in the medium term, Republican themselves will pay the consequences for not paying attention to one of the most important issues for Hispanic voters and not understanding the new American society.