Republicans furious, Democrats laud move.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: After giving Congress the better part of two years to find a bipartisan solution to immigration reform, President Barack Obama announced on Monday that he will use executive powers to enact certain reforms on his own.
The bold statement came after House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said that the issue of immigration reform will not be voted on at all in 20114, effectively ending the bill’s hopes for passage this year. Obama, who has been pushing for reform as a major tenant of his second term, will now apparently do what he feels needs to be done without the help of an increasingly divided US Congress.
“For more than a year, Republicans in the House of Representatives have refused to allow an up-or-down vote on that Senate bill or any legislation to fix our broken immigration system,” Obama told reporters, at a press conference at the White House Rose Garden on Monday. “And I held off on pressuring them for a long time to give Speaker Boehner the space he needed to get his fellow Republicans on board.”
Almost exactly one year ago, the Senate passed a version of comprehensive immigration reform – then known as the Gang of Eight bill, for the eight Senators that introduced it – and sent it to the House of Representatives. But the largely Conservative House had problems with several measures that the Democrat-leaning Senate passed without much fuss, and stalled the bill.
Earlier this year, there seemed to be renewed fervor to get the bill passed, particularly from the Right. Boehner and other high-ranking House Republicans went on a retreat to discuss where they were willing to budge on the bill, and several Republicans, particularly younger ones, were working on their own provisions to provide citizenship for undocumented immigrants, among other controversial components.
In his speech, Obama blamed old-fashioned politics for the abrupt 180-degree turn by House Republicans, saying that they were using new issues as an excuse to table reform rather than enact it even quicker.
“Some in the House Republican Caucus are using the situation with unaccompanied children as their newest excuse to do nothing,” said Obama. “Now, I want everybody to think about that. Their argument seems to be that because the system is broken, we shouldn’t make an effort to fix it. It makes no sense. It’s not on the level. It’s just politics, plain and simple.”
Boehner has said repeatedly that, in addition to amnesty and pathways to citizenship, Republicans are most concerned about protecting the border. That Boehner is now pumping the brakes because of a border issue is not surprising, as he has said that House Republicans simply don’t trust Obama to adequately shore up border security – something that clearly needs to be done sooner than ever.
Obama has taken this to heart, and said on Tuesday that he is “directing the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General to move available and appropriate resources from our interior to the border.” Additionally, he said that he has “directed Secretary Johnson and Attorney General Holder to identify additional actions my administration can take on our own, within my existing legal authorities, to do what Congress refuses to do and fix as much of our immigration system as we can.”
Unfortunately, beyond that, Obama remained vague on exactly what parts of the comprehensive immigration reform bill he would enact. Given the political discourse that has taken place over the last few months, it’s safe to assume that just about all of the action will be in the realm of illegal immigration, leaving those wondering about the ramifications for legal immigrants in limbo.
But for others, who have called for H-1B reform and accused it of being used to exploit cheap labor from foreign countries, the lack of meaningful reform sets the cause back. The H-4 proposal, however, will likely be unaffected by all this.
Reaction on Capitol Hill was expectedly divided, with Democrats lauding the President for finally taking action, and Republicans accusing Obama of exercising too much executive control. While Democrats blame the Republicans’ inaction for leading to this result, Republicans say that the Democrats have been unwilling to work with them, continuing the contentious partisan politics that have plagued Washington throughout Obama’s Presidency.
Obama did not announce a timeframe on when he will enact these legislative measures, only saying that he hopes Republicans will come to their senses and pass a reform bill sooner rather than later.
“If House Republicans are really concerned about me taking too many executive actions, the best solution to that is passing bills,” the President said. “Pass a bill; solve a problem. Don’t just say no on something that everybody agrees needs to be done. Because if we pass a bill, that will supplant whatever I’ve done administratively.”
Obama added that once a bill is passed, “We’ll have a structure there that works, and it will be permanent. And people can make plans and businesses can make plans based on the law. And there will be clarity both here inside this country and outside it.”
Obama’s full remarks can be heard in the following YouTube video, courtesy of The White House: