Obama Will Go It Alone on Immigration

U.S. News & World Report

By Lauren Fox

June 30, 2014

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/06/30/obama-will-go-it-alone-on-immigration-reform

President Barack Obama will not wait any longer for Congress to act on immigration reform. That was his message from the White House Rose Garden Monday, as he announced he would begin refocusing resources along the southern border and take additional steps to keep families together.

“Today I'm beginning a new effort to fix as much of the immigration system as I can on my own,” Obama said.

The president’s declaration had been a long time coming. While Obama had fought back calls for months from immigration activists to go it alone, the president slowly started to lose faith that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, had any intention to act in 2014. Boehner made things crystal clear last week when he told the president he would not take action in the election year.

A year after the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill, Obama still had not seen an immigration reform bill on his desk.

“America cannot wait forever for them to act,” Obama said Monday of the House.

While the president will wait for recommendations from Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder before taking action, the president’s announcement signals a serious change in the Obama administration’s posture on immigration reform.

Advocates who have worked closely with Obama as he has weighed his options say the president did not take the podium lightly Monday. Acting without Congress, after all, is only temporary. The president was also keenly aware that executive action on immigration reform would bring any negotiations on Capitol Hill to a screeching halt.

If there was any hope left that Congress might act, Obama wanted to see the possibility through.

“You don’t just snap your fingers and get a Senate bill,” says Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress. “You cannot really walk away from that without exploring every opportunity to get legislation done.”

Adding to the debate over immigration reform are the thousands of migrant children rushing across the border, many to escape violence back home and reunite with family members in the U.S. The crisis is so severe that officials have estimated up to 90,000 kids may come before the end of the fiscal year. The Obama administration sent a letter to Congress Monday outlining its plan to more quickly remove the children and send them back to their home countries.

Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, says the president’s decision to go it alone illustrates a breaking point for the White House and its ability to shepherd legislation on Capitol Hill.

"That is a Band-Aid to the real problem,” Aguilar says. Still, he admits the president does have freedom to stem deportations and help fix the broken immigration system. “The law does provide him a lot of discretion, so if he would decide to give further actions to the rest of the undocumented population, he does have that authority," he says.

Aguilar says even if the White House has been a poor negotiating partner on issues in the past, House Republicans should be kicking themselves for letting the president get out ahead of them on immigration. While Republicans in Congress may be deeply divided about how to proceed on issues like citizenship and low-skill worker visas, Republicans nationally understand the party must do something to make inroads with Hispanic voters if they want to win the White House in 2016. 

Aguilar, who once worked on Latino outreach in the administration of President George W. Bush, says House leaders have excuses but no plan to move the party forward. Some House Republicans have pointed to Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s stunning defeat as reason enough to steer clear of immigration reform. Others have pointed the finger at the president, saying they cannot trust him to enforce the laws.

"Ultimately, you've got to feel like the president is going to take the law and use it," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., told reporters last week on Capitol Hill. "It is difficult to overstate how significant their policy failures have been. I almost don't have words to express it."

Aguilar says Republicans are letting that talking point get in the way of making any change.

“The truth is that there was never a strategy to get this done,” Aguilar says. “I agree with the president when he says [Republicans] didn't propose anything. That is really frustrating.”

While the president’s executive authority may be the only tool he has left to leave his mark on the immigration debate, any action he takes likely will dash the remaining hope that Congress can come together on reform before he leaves the White House. Even in the Senate, lawmakers will have to start from scratch in 2015.

“Immigration reform is dead,” Aguilar says. "Obama realizes it. I think he is honest when he says he tried to give Republicans a chance.”

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com