It’s no secret that John Boehner (D-Ohio) and House Republican leaders want to negotiate an immigration deal that includes amnesty for illegal aliens. It’s there in “Immigration reform standards”, they revealed in overdue January.
It’s also no secret that Boehner and company reluctantly chose not to advance immigration legislation this year due to resistance from the Republican caucus and many a blow from their political base. Conveniently, President Obama’s refusal to enforce most existing immigration laws, coupled with his demand for the executive branch to unilaterally grant amnesty to broad categories of illegal aliens, provided Republican Party leaders with a face-saving way to renege on their “principles” just a week after making them public.
“There are widespread doubts about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws,” he added. Boehner said on February 6, stating that the House was unlikely to take action on immigration in 2014. Even Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the Senate Gang of Eight, cautioned the House against trusting the president to implement any good-faith immigration enforcement. The administration “will only handle the legalization part, but not the enforcement part.” Rubio stated.
Boehner and Rubio are right, of course. The president has shown that he will not enforce immigration laws he doesn’t like, and there is no longer any reason to pretend to enforce them once he achieves his political goal of amnesty for illegal aliens.
Enter Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Senate’s most tireless fighter for illegal alien amnesty.
Schumer told House Republicans that if they wanted to operate the president as an excuse not to pass their own amnesty bill, he would be open to taking the president out of the equation. “Let’s introduce this bill this year, but let’s just not let it start until 2017, when President Obama’s term ends,” Schumer said on the show NBC Meet the press February 9. This is a typically shrewd political maneuver by Schumer, who felt that Republicans were painting themselves into a corner by citing the president, rather than bad policy, as the reason for not taking action on immigration in 2014.
But Schumer’s apparent offer of political cover for Republicans is actually an ironclad guarantee that immigration laws won’t be enforced for the next three years, along with a powerful likelihood that the amnesty will be even larger than if it went into effect immediately. Just think: If President Obama refuses to enforce most immigration laws now, there is virtually no chance he will enforce them on people who are counting down to 2017, when the amnesty takes effect. loudly demanding that the administration is pausing most deportations based solely on the possibility that Congress will grant amnesty. Such demands will only be strengthened by the fact that Congress has already granted amnesty starting in 2017.
Even if the three-year delay did not involve a formal work permit, it would certainly give a de facto green lithe to work in the US. Congress cannot pass laws essentially ordering illegal aliens to meet while President Obama serves the rest of his term and expect the president to prevent them from working while they wait.
No one really knows for sure how many illegal aliens are here right now, but one thing is certain: If Republicans accept Schumer’s offer, the number will be much higher in 2017. The plan essentially gives people around the world three years to come in and get their bogus stubs. paychecks or rent bills to show they were here before the cut-off date Congress wrote into the final bill.
The GOP leadership’s response to Schumer should be obvious: talk to us in 2017. Three years is an eternity, and there is no reason why Congress in 2014 should enact amnesty and massive increases in immigration, which may make even less sense (if that’s possible). ) in three years. In the meantime, the current Congress should focus on getting President Obama to put down his pen and phone and start enforcing the law that has already been passed.
