Log In


Reset Password
Opinion Editorial Cartoons Op-Ed Editorials Letters to the Editor

Obama, immigration

Executive action to prompt change, uncertainty for millions

President Barack Obama addressed the nation Thursday to outline his executive order to extend temporary work visas to up to 5 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States. Doing so was much anticipated and, even prior to his address, Obama’s plans had caught the attention of Republicans in Congress who are altogether unimpressed with the substance and process of the president’s announcement. The issue is long overripe for action, and Obama has made it both a promise and a priority to address meaningfully the unsustainable scenario of 11.7 immigrants living in the country illegally. His executive order will not solve the problem, but it places the issue on the country’s main stage where it belongs.

Before the Nov. 4 election, Obama and immigration-reform supporters were unable to advance a bipartisan measure in the U.S. House of Representatives that would have created a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants, despite the measure’s passage in the Senate. The president let the matter drop heading into election season. Now that Republicans will control both chambers of Congress beginning in January, Obama has little reason to conclude that legislative action on immigration reform will be forthcoming in the remainder of his term. If he is to make good on his commitment to addressing immigration policy, Obama is left with few options. The executive order is among the most effective, and he should pay little heed to Republicans’ threats that Obama’s use of the tool will poison the well, making it difficult for him to work with Congress. That dynamic is what prompted Obama’s action in the first place.

However, the reprieve embodied in the executive order lacks the certainty that a real policy reform requires. Obama’s plan would expand eligibility for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program begun in 2012, which granted work permits and lifted threat of deportation for 1.2 million children whose parents brought them to the country illegally. The program would expand to include an additional 700,000 young people. The executive action would also extend to those DACA-eligible children’s parents – estimated at about 3.4 million adults who would no longer be at risk of deportation, and could apply for temporary work permits. The plan leaves 6.4 million immigrants unaffected.

The temporary nature of the reprieve shrouds Obama’s action in a heavy layer of uncertainty for those immigrants who stand to benefit. Setting aside the promised fight from Congress that will unfold in January if not sooner, the executive order holds only as long as Obama or someone sympathetic to his position holds the office. It is not sufficient to withstand a significant ideological shift in the presidency. In the offing, those immigrants who choose to participate in the temporary reprieve could become quite vulnerable to such a change.

Nevertheless, it is well past time that something significant be done at the policy level in Washington, D.C., to recognize the many millions of immigrants who call the United States home, contribute to its economy and participate in its culture. That is not an easy task, even if all parties were in agreement. But congressional Republicans’ refusal to budge on what is an immutable issue demanding meaningful action has prompted Obama to strike out on his own. It has started a conversation that must be had, and it has done so with a bold plan recognizing the vulnerable immigrant populations that live in the United States, and attempting to ease that vulnerability, however temporarily. Obama’s plans are imperfect, but they embody much-needed action.



Reader Comments