So yes, it turns out that President Obama can do something about deportation, the DREAM act, and undocumented students.
President Obama will announce a new immigration policy this morning that will allow some undocumented students to avoid deportation and receive work authorization.
Under the president’s “deferred action” executive order, students in the U.S. who are already in deportation proceedings or those who qualify for the DREAM Act and have yet to come forward to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, will not be deported and will be allowed to work in the United States.
An estimated 1 million young people could benefit from the deferral. To be eligible, applicants have to be between 15 and 30 years old, live in the U.S. for five years, and maintain continuous U.S. residency. People who have one felony, one serious misdemeanor, or three minor misdemeanors will be ineligible to apply. “Deferred action” will last for two years and can be renewed.
Obama is expected to speak about this new policy later today.
The Associated Press is already using terms like “immunity” and “amnesty”. Republicans are expected to explode in 5…4…3…
[UPDATE] Yep, Malkin and Co. throwing a fit according to Memeorandum. And yes, the downside of executive branch action? This program dies screaming the instant Mitt Romney should take office. Might want to keep this in mind. [UPDATE 2] More on the announcement from MSNBC:The Department of Homeland Security said that, effective immediately, the government would no longer seek the deportation of illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, and would allow them to apply for work permits if they meet certain criteria.
“Our nation’s immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and sensible manner,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in a statement Friday.
A senior administration official said in a conference call with reporters that as many as 800,000 undocumented immigrants stand to benefit from this change. Napolitano said that the shift represented neither immunity nor amnesty — buzzwords for conservatives who oppose illegal immigration — but instead represented an instance of “prosecutorial discretion” in which the government had re-evaluated its priorities in enforcing the law.
Echoing the comments of several in this thread, “Your move, Mittens”.
arguingwithsignposts
inb4 “Just Words,” “Why didn’t he do this sooner?” and, the new favorite, “DRONES!”
desertflower
Let their small minded, sociopathic heads explode. Your move. Mitt.
Hunter Gathers
Marco Rubio is currently trying to remove the shiv Obama just stuck into his back.
Villago Delenda Est
Fuck the racist filth of the GOP. And fuck the AP.
some guy
just like Marco Rubio said it should be. now that’s innovation.
redshirt
How dare the President do something that might benefit his re-election?! The arrogance!
Patricia Kayden
Great. He should have done this before.
4tehlulz
The only way to show our displeasure at being pandered to (cuz it happens all the time amirite?) is to stay home in November.
some guy
@Hunter Gathers:
Mitten’s spin on this in Orlando next week will be interesting to watch. claim credit for it, or denounce it. what to do, what to do????
Strandedvandal
@some guy:
It’s Mittens, he’ll do both.
Roger Moore
And if you want to keep those rules in place, you know who you need to vote for in November.
BGinCHI
I’ll be you a dollar Tom Tancredo appears on the Sunday shows.
arguingwithsignposts
@Patricia Kayden: Called it in 6. Not bad.
Hunter Gathers
@some guy: He’ll take the 3rd option – he won’t mention it. Not taking a stand one way or another on anything involving the subject of immigration is what professional cowards do.
Kane
Your move, Mitt. Go ahead, oppose this. I dare you.
Culture of Truth
“In response, Romney announced a plan to drive around his gardener’s quinceanera honking his horn loudly.”
PaulW
In other news, ZOMG Far Left Democrats Don’t Think Obama Can Win In November… See, someone posting in Daily Kos says it, so The Left Is In Disarray!
Sigh.
kindness
It’s going to be real fun watching Mittens howl and moan about President Obama’s move. Fun because it will only help Obama in that Hispanics will see what Republican government offers them as a people here in the US.
Making popcorn as I type.
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth:
WIN!
Unsympathetic
Mittens will say that he has a position on this policy, but doesn’t want to reveal it now.
Hunter Gathers
@PaulW: I hear they’re trying to get a ‘Draft Darcy Burner for POTUS’ petition going.
Cacti
Well played by the President.
Most polling has Mittens in the mid to high 20s with Hispanic voters. He can’t afford to alienate them further. He also can’t afford to alienate the racist white vote.
My guess is he says very little about this and tries to sweep it aside.
FlipYrWhig
And once again Obama uses the prerogatives of executive power. Deplorable. ;P
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Hunter Gathers:
Horowitz is in a fine froth this AM at Redstate…lol! They’ve been going nuts with worry that Rubio would push his version of the Dream Act out and BLAM! (their favorite word at Redstate!), Obama blindsides them.
If Obama pulls it off and wins this fall, I think he is going to redefine “lame duck”.
Omnes Omnibus
@Patricia Kayden: Just like DADT, right? Honestly, you may be right, but can’t people ever be happy that something good happens without a “what took you so long”?
FlipYrWhig
@Hunter Gathers: No better way to confront Bourgeois Patriarchy.
Cargo
mitt’s not going to sweep this aside, he’s going to go full wingnut on the attack and now ‘amnesty’ and ‘soft on ILLEGALS’ is going to be all we’ll hear about Obama.
The white people who already weren’t going to vote for Obama are 10x likely to not vote for him now. It’ll fire up the R. base more than the Ds.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Patricia Kayden:
Awww, you purity progressives are so cute when you stomp your little feet!
Corner Stone
I had heard this was unpossible.
Maude
@Patricia Kayden:
Yeah, in 2007.
Valdivia
It will be interesting to see what Mittens does. I see that his speech on the small town tour bus includes a line saying that Obama gave a long speech. Is his campaign for real? This is what they’re going with?
Culture of Truth
Indeed. This may not be 11 dimensional chess, but as in that game when it is played well, Obama is by turns slowly boxing Mittens in to a series of untenable positions.
This race is winnable by Romney, and he may be one of a very Republicans in America who could possibly do it, since he has the resume and the shoulders, but he is going to wake up in November asking what went wrong, I’m a smart white guy – but he is being outplayed by a guy who knows that, like a good athlete, sometime you have to to be cautious and sometimes you have to be bold.
Keith
Expect a push to defund the DHS in 3…2..1…
danah gaz (fka gaz)
Good. It’s a start, at least.
desertflower
@redshirt: How dare he DO THE RIGHT THING! AMERICA IS FOR FOR DREAMERS!
Shalimar
@arguingwithsignposts: She and all the negativists are right, this should have been the policy beginning in 2009. Obama didn’t gain any political goodwill from anyone for his policies of the first 3 and a half years of his presidency. Immigrants who can come to the US and get jobs (and who don’t commit any crimes) should never be illegal. Immigration law is made by political cowards who can’t keep up with reality.
But, much much better now than never. It isn’t Obama’s fault that so many in the House and Senate oppose realistic policies that are good for the country as a whole; and it certainly isn’t his fault that so many voters are racists who don’t want any non-whites in their country at all.
Kane
Giving legal status to young, law-abiding immigrants who came to the US as kids vs a policy of self-deportation.
How’s that Hispanic outreach workin’ out for ya?
Hunter Gathers
@Cargo: If Mittens cannot improve his numbers with Hispanics, it is impossible for him to win. He’d have to get more than 60% of the White vote, and no candidate gotten that high of a percentage of that demographic since Reagan in 1984 (Bush Sr. got 59% in 1988, and Dubya pulled down 58% in the closest POTUS re-election in history in 2004). And a lot of those voters from 1984 are dead.
Cacti
@Cargo:
Your concern is duly noted.
Linda Featheringill
I can sympathize with those who think that Obama could/should have done this sooner.
In his defense, carrying this out might be more complex than it looks.
But this is one [more] time when Obama looks like a saint because the Other Side is so nasty. Remember when Gingrich tried to say that human beings and families were woven into the immigration questions? He was shouted down, literally. Really hard-hearted people.
Hill Dweller
@Cargo: Obama has deported more illegal immigrants in his first 3.5 years than any President in history. Any claims that he wasn’t serious will rightfully get laughed at.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@danah gaz (fka gaz): (Have you ever thought of something so cynical that it borders on evil:) Yeah, next thing you know, he’ll start taking care of Americans.
The Dangerman
@Linda Featheringill:
Pardon the Godwin, but they are the brownshirts that can’t stand the browns (or the blacks for that matter).
arguingwithsignposts
@Shalimar: The legislative history of the DREAM Act is fascinating. You might want to look it up some time.
ETA: I don’t recall the DREAM Act ever actually passing, so it is, as Linda Feathergill pointed out above, probably going to be harder to implement than it sounds.
Culture of Truth
I can also sympathize with those who think that progrssive activists could/should have made this happen sooner. But here we are.
Villago Delenda Est
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Their pain is my pleasure. Especially that vile asshole Horowitz.
Cacti
@Valdivia:
I figure he’s doing this to connect with the base during the June doldrums, when the politically active are the only ones really paying attention.
At some point, he’s going to have to take some actual policy positions. It’s fine to run against something or someone, but eventually the undecided will ask…”and replace it with what”?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
OT, but related. My wife and I got the home visit done yesterday, so we’ll be getting our teenagery person probably around August, when the immigration detention center and and DHS gets around to processing and releasing him. It’s a remarkably long process, but it saves him from ending up in Mexico (a country he hasn’t seen since he was six). So yay.
The visiting case worker decided she liked us, I guess. The meet was supposed to go for two hours, but wound up taking three and a half. I think she was rather enjoying herself. This isn’t foster care, so they don’t expect much, but we’ve got everything in order, including his room, and a support network through our faith community, etc. so we can plug him into soccer, piano lessons, and whatever – he’s got family in the area too and they are thrilled. Since they don’t have papers they couldn’t get him released to their custody. =(
Anyway, if a plurality of white Americans weren’t stupid fucking assholes, this kind of thing wouldn’t need to happen. ICE breaks up families. ICE breaks up families. ICE breaks up families. No self respecting Christian should abide our fucked up, broken, and racist immigration laws. I’ll kick the next person that screams about enforcement.
Shalimar
@Omnes Omnibus: The difference between this and DADT is that DADT had active opposition in the military heirarchy and Obama’s strategy of waiting, researching and accumulating support had the effect of ameliorating the effectiveness of that opposition.
Where was the opposition to a more effective immigration strategy among groups that needed to be placated? One of the worst things imaginable in a democracy is a military that won’t follow civilian orders. There is no similar situation on immigration, and the mid-term elections couldn’t have gone worse for Dems anyway. Oh no, Republicans will be pissed off. They are anyway about something new every single day, so no big change there.
Culture of Truth
The media wants to make this a horse race, but time is running out for Mittens to make an affirmative case beyond “I’m white! Look at my creamy mormon CEO shoulders!”
But it’s still June and I’m sure Rob Portman will change everything.
redshirt
My Father’s opinion about Obama: A complete and total fraud.
I LOL’d in his face, and told him he was delusional. He’s a very smart man yet utterly and completely blind to this matter. And I suspect it is so with many Repukes – they have no idea how they’re getting outplayed by a man, and a team, that is leagues smarter then them.
Cacti
@Hunter Gathers:
Hence the coordinated effort to make it difficult for non-Republicans to vote nationwide.
Rather than adjust their party to a new demographic reality, they decided to try and contort reality to fit their electoral goals.
redshirt
@Culture of Truth: “Creamy Mormon CEO Shoulders” is a great title, for something. Album? Blog? Tag? Something! LOL.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
For anyone who needs a graph, this one shows criminal and noncriminal deportations over the last ten years. Obama has been reducing the noncriminal deportations while raising the criminal deportations. Markos had a post yesterday showing how Obama had been deporting mope illegal immigrants than any other president, and how Latinos were howling, but he didn’t show the graph in his post.
Foregone Conclusion
Mitt’s position will be that his immigration is very similar to Obama’s; however, his is different to that of the job-killing, foreigner-loving president’s in a number of important ways which he can’t recall right now.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Shalimar:
It’s easy to say that he should have done this after he first took office, you aren’t the one who has to deal with the fallout from it during the starting period of his presidency. Like it or not, Obama knows how to ‘play’ politics and just doesn’t do things ‘right now’ because he thinks about it first. These are political issues and they are going to be dealt with politically. While nobody likes to see their issues being dealt with in that way, that’s the reality of American politics.
The purity progressives can bitch all they want but Obama is getting shit done, much of it without their help, some of it despite their backstabbing of him. They may not like the timing but then again, they aren’t the president.
Timing, Obama has it and understands the importance of it. Something that the purity progressives never have and never will.
@Villago Delenda Est:
As it is mine, that’s why I read the place. Ok, I try to interpret it.
schrodinger's cat
I am glad for the DREAMERS and yes Obama administration has been unusually tough on enforcement issues, both regarding illegal and legal immigration. Now I hope he simplifies the thicket that is legal immigration. That is something that unfortunately gets left out of the immigration debates.
Valdivia
Obama tried to get this passed through Congress. The a-holes wouldn’t eve let it get a vote. I love that Obama does this stuff in little steps. Like after DADT repeal passed congress, they stopped defending DOMA. He tired one way, it didn’t work, he is going the exec way now and he gets to point at Congress for not doing anything
ruemara
@Patricia Kayden: I’m fairly sure this is snark, but to those who really feel this way, do you ever think that maybe it takes this long as there’s probably reams of paperwork and study to figure out what’s legal and how to make it stay legal under challenges? Just wondering if you think it’s just whipped out from a special cupboard or something.
redshirt
Obama has a very tough road to hoe in regards anything involving foreign policy and/or crime issues at home: He has to walk the line between being “tough” (for political reasons) and being “smart” (for obvious reasons). He threads these needles all the time.
Villago Delenda Est
@Culture of Truth:
Um, he’s downplaying the “Mormon” part about his creamy shoulders. That you can land a 737 on.
The hicks in the Bible Belt still haven’t come quite to terms with the “Mormon” thing, so let’s not talk about it much.
Shalimar
@arguingwithsignposts: Yeah, I know. Very little chance of passing in the foreseeable future, for gut reasons among so many people that make no sense at all. It drives me nuts when I hear someone say immigrants are taking “our” jobs. I have a lot of contact with mexican construction workers through my job. These guys work their asses off in Florida heat for 10 hours a day. If you can’t admire their work ethic, there is something wrong with you. We need more people in the country like them, not fewer.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Culture of Truth:
I wonder if Rmoney leaves his magic underwear on when he bleaches it.
Probably, gotta keep the whites white!
@Villago Delenda Est: “… so let’s not talk about it much.”
No, let’s do. ;p
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Against my better judgement, I’m holding out hope that this gets a bit better during his second term. Yeah yeah, Charlie, meet Lucy + football. =/
ETA: The political blogs aren’t really helping my mood. Nor are they improving lives on the ground. I focus on doing what I can in our community. I don’t expect the help of politicians, but I’m glad for it when we get it.
Patricia Kayden
@Omnes Omnibus: I actually wasn’t criticizing President Obama for this executive order. It’s great that he has done this. Period.
Villago Delenda Est
@redshirt:
“That guy is near. How can he possibly outthink us?”
Their racism blinds them to the obvious.
Linda Featheringill
@The Dangerman:
Brownshirts:
Yes. I’ve often said that my birth family was filled with people whose political stance was slightly to the left of Goehring. Slightly.
My dad was saved from a lot of crimes and sins by the fact that he was too dysfunctional to get along in a group for very long. There are just a lot of things you can’t really do by yourself.
My family was not unique. There are a lot of people like them them out there.
arguingwithsignposts
@redshirt:
Row to hoe.
/pedant :)
Valdivia
@Cacti:
I would also add that the line is both for his base and the media, he is stroking their egos with the long speech thing because his team is not really into tire swings and bbq’s
@schrodinger’s cat:
I can attest as a legal immigrant that got naturalized under Obama that they have streamlined that process a lot and made it, at least for someone with a green card already, much easier to navigate.
Hunter Gathers
@Cacti: Mittens’ base of old, white conservatives keeps shrinking every day. All of the vote suppression in the world won’t keep old white people from dying.
Shalimar
@Odie Hugh Manatee: I do agree. He gets to the right position, and does it methodically so it sticks. I just feel bad for all those who got deported in the last 3+ years because of the previous policy.
Trakker
I expect to see a lot of actions like this in the next few months. I know the GOP will explode but I think a majority of Americans will approve of this – if we have any compassion left in us.
Culture of Truth
I still can’t tell whether those us who thought Bush was a fraud underestimated him – he did win twice, after all. Sometimes I think he might be pretty canny, but then I saw a clip of him last night and thought – nah, dumbest Presnit ever.
Cacti
@Valdivia:
The thing I appreciate most about this President is that he’s so very results-oriented. “Noble failure” is still failure. By being practical rather than grandiose, he’s advanced more democratic priorities in 3 years than had happened in the previous 40.
Linda Featheringill
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): #54
Nice graph!
Deporting the criminal element doesn’t bother me at all. Kick ’em out.
I notice the the deported noncriminal element has steadily decreased. That’s good. Perhaps we can continue that trend.
Again, nice graph. Thanks for sharing it with us.
redshirt
@arguingwithsignposts: I’ve hoed some roads. ;)
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Cargo:
So 20,000,000 x 0 is still…..ZERO.
Oi fucking vey.
Also too, as for firing up the Repup base, time and time again it’s shown that people don’t go to the polls solely to vote against something, they go to vote for something or someone.
Obama has given the Hispanic community something to vote for this November.
@Patricia Kayden:
You and the rest of the firebaggers are the type of people who, when staring at the Sistine Chapel ceiling shortly after Michelangelo finished it would have noticed a microscopic blank area in a darkened corner and then said “you missed a spot.”
Or voted for Nader in 2000 because there’s no difference between the parties.
Oi fucking vey again.
Jennifer
@Hunter Gathers: Yep, what you said.
I’ve yet to become all that concerned about the money advantage Romney has, for the simple reason that a majority of women and Hispanics are NOT going to vote for him, no matter what. Women alone are over half the electorate; currently the split there is something like 57% Obama vs. 43% Romeny (white women). You throw in Hispanic and African American women and the split for all women is larger. Then there’s the 56 point advantage Obama ALREADY had with Hispanics/Latinos, who are what, 10% of the electorate? And in the 13% of the electorate made up by African Americans, Obama will get 95% or more.
My prediction is that Rmoney will try to avoid saying much about this, other than to deplore Obama for not respecting the balance of power by moving forward with something rather than wait on an immovable congress to address it. Which is great, because it will allow the president to point out that Republicans in congress also haven’t done anything for Hispanics/Latinos. (Democrats currently enjoy the same 56-point advantage over Republicans that Obama has over Rmoney.) So there’s some coattail potential there.
It won’t matter if Rmoney doesn’t talk about it though, because all the rightwing media bloviators and bloggers will do the job of letting Hispanics/Latinos know that Republicans hate their dirty brown asses; meanwhile, the base will be even less trusting in Mittens if he doesn’t join in on the immigrant-bashing. It won’t be enough to keep them from voting for him, most of them, but it will dampen their enthusiasm.
There’s simply no way they can play this for advantage outside of their always-shrinking base of old white bigots. Expect the 56 point margin Obama and the Dems currently enjoy over Rmoney and the Repubs to grow even larger.
redshirt
@Culture of Truth: In retrospect – scarily enough – he was a far superior candidate to the last 4 years of Wingnut losers.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Shalimar:
I do too but that’s the problem with dealing with issues like this politically. It’s the sad reality of our political system that the people that issues like this affect are treated as political footballs to be tossed every which way but to the end zone.
Until Obama. He has to let them toss the ball around until he sees an opening and then he scores, leaving them all in the dust.
If he does anything else it is seen as ‘cheating’.
Linda Featheringill
@Valdivia:
Good to hear from a naturalized immigrant.
I’m glad that the process is getting more reasonable. Life is complex enough.
gwangung
I think this is quite under-appreciated by folks. Doing the right thing and in a way that it’s hard to undo is pretty damn important.
VincentN
Executive orders can be reversed. That’s why they’re usually not the preferred course of action if one wants a lasting change. Obviously Obama’s preferred action would have been for Congress to pass the DREAM Act. This order means he has accepted that this will not happen under this Congress. Any chance of even a watered down DREAM Act a la Rubio has been torpedeoed. So while this executive order is definitely good for a lot of people it would have been a lot better in the long run to get legislative change. But for that to happen we’re going to need a better Congress.
Cacti
@Villago Delenda Est:
If you have any election-related conversations with the bible thumping crowd, stir up the cog dis.
Tell them that you can’t vote for Rmoney because he’s not christian. Feel free to throw in…
The Mormon Jesus is not the Jesus of the bible. Mormons don’t believe in the holy trinity. Mormons believe God lives on a planet called Kolob. Mormons believe the New Jerusalem will be in Missouri, etc.
All of the above are 100% true.
schrodinger's cat
@Valdivia: That’s good to know, I was actually referring to the endless wait people from India, China and a few other countries have to go through just to get their green card even after their I-140s have been approved.
Villago Delenda Est
@VincentN:
One in which Boner is the minority leader. Or, in the alternative, Cantor is. Because if the GOP loses the House, Boner’s goose is cooked.
Nicole
I’m visiting the in-laws in Oklahoma, and of course Faux News is on. The best they can come up with is that it’s a tactic to lure Latino voters. Even Faux is admitting you can’t really find fault with letting good kids stay in the only place they’ve ever known.
Omnes Omnibus
@Patricia Kayden: Cool.
Hunter Gathers
@Jennifer: What I find to be interesting is that the demographic groups you brought up are practically invisible to the Village. The only voters that matter to the MSM are white male independent (embarrased Republican) voters. Wonder why that is. (Not really)
schrodinger's cat
This is completely anecdotal, but this has happened to a few of my acquaintances, they were either getting their visa status changed or extended, something that used to be fairly routine and were subjected to background checks which ended up taking months and could not return to their jobs/school in a timely manner. Treating every one who wants to enter the country as a potential terrorist/fraudster is not a winning strategy. Just my opinion. YMMV.
Yutsano
@Cacti:
I actually say this, though I just say flat-out Mormon. Any person who has gotten the hard evangelical push from them probably feels the same way.
Someguy
@Villago Delenda Est:
I really wish you’d stop sugar coating things.
Valdivia
@Cacti:
I love love that description. Practical rather than grandiose. It is exactly what I dig about him and I think it makes some people crazy.
@Linda Featheringill:
And @ Schrodinger’s cat
I applied for a green card in 1994 through my marriage. The system was so fucked up it took over 10 years and an appeal (I almost got kicked out of the country because of sheer incompetence) to get me the green card. But once I had it and I applied for the naturalization the DHS really made it super easy for me. My impression of every interaction I had was positive and that is a lot to say given all the bad ones I had before.
ETA: never, in my experience, was changing one’s status an easy thing. Immigration here has always been the worse place to deal with paper work and authorities. Mt experience has been better in the last few years.
Villago Delenda Est
@Yutsano:
Obama, of course, cannot go there, as the Village will rise up as one and talk about “religious intolerance!”. But the fact of the matter is, the Rethuglican, and therefore Rmoney’s, base is made up of the religiously intolerant.
This is the most wedgy wedge issue of all wedge issues, as far as the Rethug base is concerned. After all, they are the ones who have been relentlessly pushing the “Muslim” meme irt Obama for four years, have they not?
Grumpy Code Monkey
@Shalimar:
No, that’s our fault, and something we should do our god-damndest to rectify this November (and in 2014). Congress is supposed to run the show, but we spend all our time and energy worrying about the Presidency.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Valdivia:
I recently (2010) had to renew my green card and the difference between this time and the last time was like night and day. This time you begin the process on line, they send you a letter with an appointment time in Raleigh (last time the closest immigration office was Charlotte). You show up at the appointed time and its “whoosh” fingerprints, photo and you are out of there. They send you a new card in the mail a week or so later. The people in Raleigh were also MUCH nicer than they ever were in the Charlotte office.
I do not know if it is this administration’s doing but I do know that the process is much nicer and less stress inducing (and less costly due to not having to take three days off work and staying overnight in Charlotte).
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Villago Delenda Est: Shorter GOP: Why don’t you tolerate our intolerance?
pseudonymous in nc
On the timing, and the politics of the timing: there’s almost certainly not enough time for the Teabagger House to do anything other than harrumph, and the outright bigots in the GOP House caucus to say stupid shit; the Senate isn’t going to take this up either. So even if there’s an attempt to nullify this by legislation, it’s not going anywhere, and Dems in paler parts of the US aren’t going to have to vote on it.
There might be a court challenge to the DHS’s powers, but that’s probably going nowhere.
But this is why the US has such a shitty immigration policy: it’s cobbled together from piecemeal bills and executive orders and agency directives on how to interpret rules, all wrapped around a never-ending election cycle where the people who pass judgement on immigration policy are, by definition, the least qualified to do so.
gwangung
I just like seeing that.
And, actually, it’s both President and Congress. People forget that, while having a more liberal President is NECESSARY, it is NOT SUFFICIENT.
And a bully pulpit doesn’t take the place of a more liberal Congress.
Odie Hugh Manatee
This move really has hit hard at Redstate. Streiff, one of the biggest assholes over there, never seems to lack words of contempt for anything about Obama or the Democrats and is responding cautiously now. Some there are warning others that this is a non-issue and others are calling for Romney to get on the We-Hate-Brown-People bandwagon.
Streiff says that there’s no difference between Obama and Romney on this…lol!
Obama hit them good today.
Villago Delenda Est
@gwangung:
This. Word. This.
2009-2011 we had a Democrat controlled Congress, but with the usual mixture of blue dog types who only got elected because they were slightly to the left of the Rethugs they replaced. They were still well to the right of Nancy Pelosi.
redshirt
@Nicole: They’ve yet to receive their Talking Points. Check in on Monday for the true Fox Spin.
Brachiator
@Cacti:
Mittens can only appeal to non-Mormon Latinos by appealing to social conservative values (anti-abortion, etc), and to Castro hating Cubans. Otherwise, the GOP platform is inherently alienating. Mittens can’t really run away from it.
To the contrary, I expect him to double down on the “throw them out” shit he was talking in the 2008 GOP primaries.
@Cacti:
Wait a minute. Isn’t this the same as Scientology?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@redshirt: I expect that we’ll be hearing how 96% of “illegals” have refrigerators. Or something to that effect.
gwangung
@Villago Delenda Est:
True. But I’d rather have them than the crap we have now…
And…..it bugs the shit out of me that people ignored the second part of “Elect more Democrats. Then elect better Democrats.” It was like they thought they only needed the first.
sparky
nice to see both of these things happening (better late than never), but pacifist purity police like me see nothing wrong in saying that these are social issues and not structural ones.* leaving aside drone warfare and war in general, the economy is the issue. that said, if he can win through social wedge issues it would be an irony probably lost on the Rs.**
edit: i just think in the long run it is important to not lose sight of the overall picture. that is not per se negativism.
*for those who want to take umbrage, i am not saying that social issues don’t matter; i am saying that (except for the people directly affected) they are on the margins in that they do not change the Empire in a structural fashion.
**good shiny shiny is always better than reactionary shiny shiny.
Kane
-From today’s NY Times Op-Ed
Color me shocked.
hitchhiker
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Nicely done.
Maude
@ruemara:
Obama also wanted to make sure it passed Constitutional muster, in case it lands in the Supreme Court.
That takes work and effort, something the Republicans don’t do.
Nemesis
Now thats how to court the Latino vote. Well done, indeed.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@hitchhiker:
Thanks. The best part is that he doesn’t even spike the ball in the end zone.
He doesn’t have to.
Steve
I don’t want to be a concern troll, but I’m not smart enough to know whether this will actually play out as a political masterstroke. Obviously I think it’s good policy as a substantive matter, and I’d like to think we’ve reached a point in this country where voters can get behind a rational immigration policy, but who knows? There’s an obvious way to demagogue a policy that gives work permits to a bunch of illegal immigrants at a time when hard-working white Americans are having trouble finding jobs. Here’s hoping the demagoguery doesn’t work, or that all those people were going to vote Republican anyway.
I do know one thing. The fact that Obama has been extremely tough about deporting criminal immigrants, true as it is, no more insulates him from attacks on this issue than his failure to raise taxes precludes people from believing that he has. 2008 was a time when it seemed like the lies weren’t working any more. 2010 made it feel worse than ever. 2012 will be another referendum on whether the truth even matters in politics any more.
Villago Delenda Est
@Brachiator:
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the 19th century’s version of Scientology.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@gwangung:
I think most people’s timing is off. What it should be is:
During Primaries: Elect better Democrats
During Generals: Elect more Democrats
What it generally is:
During Generals: Elect better Democrats
Between Elections: Elect more Democrats
Zandar
@Steve:
That demagoguery is the trap the GOP will not just stumble in to, they will jump up and down inside the trap area and get covered in bigotry and hate. Can’t wait to see Malkin spit actual venom from her glands.
curiousleo
@redshirt: The gears have started moving. Allen West says it’s a move toward more voter fraud.
gogol's wife
I have to work and don’t have time to read the whole thread, but Patricia Kayden is being mischaracterized as a firebagger here. I’ve never seen such tendencies in her.
Villago Delenda Est
@curiousleo:
It was a mistake of the Army to not hang West when they had a chance to.
handy
@curiousleo:
File that under: More things Allen West pulled out of his ass.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but Limbaugh is claiming that government employees do not contribute to economic growth.
Is he insinuating that government employees put every dime of their pay into Swiss and Caymans bank accounts, like a certain private equity parasite we all know and love?
The stupid, it burns. The people who actually eat this tripe, they are beyond stupid.
Violet
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): But people also have to be realistic. If Dem primary winner is the Democrat equivalent of whatshername the I Am Not A Witch candidate, that isn’t going to win actual general elections either. The Tea Party overreached in some places, thus saving the Senate for the Dems. It can happen on the Dem side too.
Valdivia
@Litlebritdifrnt:
this was exactly my experience.
MomSense
@arguingwithsignposts
In Redshirt’s defense, the roads up heah are pretty full of dirt and the tar is getting thin-and these are the roads that are paved! You could hoe a road and plant some corn if you felt like it.
beergoggles
Can we register these guys to vote yet? bwahahahahaha..
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Violet: Completely agree, but think about this: Not being right wing enough that it cost incumbents their seats, whether or not it cost the Republican party a seat, has forced most of the party to move right. We kind of want the same thing for Democrats, but somehow prevent the entire party from doing the batshit crazy.
Villago Delenda Est
@beergoggles:
Interestingly enough, it’s at the registration phase of the process where you weed out those ineligible to vote.
Not at the cast a ballot stage.
But the cast a ballot stage is more dramatic for the process impaired out there, that is, the Rethug base, who can’t be bothered to attempt to understand the process, because, well, Jeebus or NASCAR, take your pick of stereotypical diversions.
beergoggles
@Villago Delenda Est: Whichever stage makes wingnut heads assplode faster is fine by me.
rikyrah
while this is good, this is not LAW. this is an Executive Order, and is subject to the whim of the President. so, I hope Latinos understand that. President Willard would just sign another Executive Order stopping it.
rlrr
@Villago Delenda Est:
To the voter integrity people: Is there any evidence that even one fraudulent vote has been cast in a recent election?
nastybrutishntall
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Wow. I had no idea. Shame on Markos for leaving that out. Why is Kos a bagger now? his whole ethos was “All Dems all the time” and now he might as well be Huffington.
amk
Bang. That’s Latino votes locked and loaded. kos must be licking his balls now given the kick to his nuts.
Brachiator
@Steve:
Sadly, we have not reached this point at all.
To the contrary, some people think that illegal immigrants and the children of illegal immigrants do not deserve any rights or consideration at all.
And nobody has to do much to demagogue the jobs issue. Although the impact can be debated, opponents of immigration reform point out that all citizens, not just Real White Americans(tm) can be affected by supposed loss of jobs to illegal immigrants. Democrats can’t make headway by simplistically ascribing concerns here to racism.
Hunter Gathers
Imperial Grand Moff Reince Priebus disapproves.
quannlace
And don’t forget that this is good news for John McCain. Yawn.
Hunter Gathers
@Brachiator:
Those people are called Republicans. Gee, I wonder who they are going to vote for in 5 months? Hint – won’t be the black guy.
rlrr
@Hunter Gathers:
Even if the black guy walks on water holding Jesus’ hand.
nastybrutishntall
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Exactly. All the emobaggers see is “Magic Negro refuses to use Magic to reaffirm my pride in being central to electing his white-guilt assuagingness in the first place. So damn him all to hell, I’m writing in Gary Dennis K PauLaRouche!” When, in fact, the media has been carefully watering and tending the Fear-of-Blackman seeds being tossed by the ton over the political landscape by the Insane Koch Posse, preparing mass hysteria should Obama actually flex his executive muscles here at home. So he has exhausted all legislative avenues to appear reluctant to wield his considerable (for a Blah!) power, and so it’s only now that he’s finally utilizing his full tool-set.
Too many metaphors you say? Bosh. Freedom!
rlrr
@Hunter Gathers:
WTF is a Reince Priebus, anyway?
Hunter Gathers
@rlrr: They’re going to be extra pissed once they find out that Jeebus isn’t white.
rlrr
@Hunter Gathers:
And is Jewish.
Bob
Pretty brilliant move.
That’s an upside in terms of Hispanics voting for Obama – now there’s something very tangible at stake for them. The move also blunts anything Rubio/Romney might have come up with and it plays into Obama’s theme of Republican obstruction – he wanted to do this before but the Republicans wouldn’t pass the law so he is taking executive action in so far as he is able. The fact that it’s being done now gives it more impact for the election, as opposed to his doing it two or three years ago.
So it’s politically brilliant on many levels.
Hunter Gathers
@rlrr:
Either the new Toyota hybrid or a medical condition involving explosive diarrhea.
Brachiator
@Hunter Gathers: RE: To the contrary, some people think that illegal immigrants and the children of illegal immigrants do not deserve any rights or consideration at all.
No, these are people who may vote for the Republicans in November. Not quite the same thing.
rlrr
@Hunter Gathers:
Either the new Toyota hybrid or a medical condition involving explosive diarrhea.
I vote for the second…
kindness
@redshirt:
And I agree with that with the exception of the Obama Administrations actions towards Medical Marijuana. In that area he’s an abomination. When the DOJ started going after the legal Medical Cannabis clubs here in CA I emailed Obama and asked them to remove me from their lists. I will vote for Obama because the alternative is shooting myself in the head, but I still wish he would chill on us pot users.
Yutsano
@Hunter Gathers: Wow. All he could do is yell it’s political. He must have seen the internals which shows his party getting pasted by Latinos. Suck it Reince. You guys just got pwned.
schrodinger's cat
More info from the ICE website. They are estimating about a million people who will benefit from this executive order, so will USCIS hire more people to deal with all the resulting paper work?
amk
Awww, the concern trolls are out in full force today. Listen punks, Obama will win or lose this on his own terms, he has got the balls to do it, unlike the dishonest coward mehmney. So suck it.
Hunter Gathers
@Brachiator:
Bullshit.
Martin
@Bob:
It really is. Policy-wise it’s not earthshaking and its fair criticism to say ‘what took so long’, but it politics-wise it really forces the GOP hand here. Romney is going to have to now oppose a policy he’s been stumping on for a little while now. Any ground he thought he might have gotten out of promising things to Latinos is now erased because Obama delivered. The debate is going to have to shift to being more anti-Latino simply as a matter of differentiation. And any other clever ideas Mitt might try and toss out there to win Latinos over, he runs the risk of Obama just co-opting and implementing as well.
Had Obama done this before the GOP broadcast their plans, they just would have turned on him. They’ll still do that, but when this gets into the light of day during the debates, Obama has a strong upper hand. Hell, he can even claim during the debates that he was bipartisan – did nothing until the GOP broadcast an acceptable plan to them, but didn’t want to wait on a dysfunctional Congress to act so he implemented the GOP acceptable plan immediately.
Martin
@schrodinger’s cat:
This is the real problem with our immigration policy – less that it’s unfair, etc. than it can’t be effectively implemented, either due to being overly complex or understaffed.
Seanly
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Why would they howl about less non-criminal deportations? Are they howling because more criminals are being deported? I’m pretty f’ing liberal, but I am totally fine with criminals being deported.
For those complaining that Obama should’ve done the DREAM act as an executive orders earlier – let’s remember how much we hated all the Bush executive orders. The Dems tried several times to pass the legislation through Congress. That should be our preferred way to do things. Didn’t work and now Obama is going to give the Republicans more rope to hang themselves this election. More power to him.
If Obama isn’t getting enough done to protect your Demmie fee-fees then give the man a hand by getting more D’s in Congress – even in your state legislature. I’ll gladly take another 4 years of a Dem WH & a few things I like than 4 years of raging lunacy and losing my job again.
gwangung
Does it occur to folks that Obama is unlikely to veto legislation coming from a Democratic Congress?
People DO have alternatives to getting progressive legislation other than just voting for President…
Tokyokie
@arguingwithsignposts: Hey, hoeing a road is even tougher, especially if it’s paved.
Smiling Mortician
Kinda late to the party, but am I the only one who wonders about the use of “deferred” in relation to DREAM? How will this poll in the crucial Langston-Hughes-scholar demographic?
Joey Maloney
@redshirt: I, on the other hand, have rode some hoes. Not recently, the more’s the pity.
Brachiator
@Hunter Gathers:
RE: No, these are people who may vote for the Republicans in November. Not quite the same thing.
I call your bullshit, and raise you.
Whatever.
Why do we even have elections? Let’s just add up the number of registered Democrats and registered Republicans, and whoever has the most, wins.
Because, as all good Balloon Juicers know, political affiliation is destiny.
Steve
@Brachiator: Immigrants do not actually take jobs away from “real Americans,” white or otherwise. Whether you want to ascribe the contrary belief to racism, xenophobia, or just plain failure to understand economics, it really doesn’t matter. You’re of course right to say that Democrats will not make these concerns go away by ascribing it all to racism; I’m not clear on who claimed otherwise. Now, could you clarify what Democrats can actually say to prevent these concerns from harming them electorally, or are you just fretting about a problem with no solution?
Tokyokie
@Litlebritdifrnt: I did most of the navigating of the spousal unit’s journey through the immigration process: SOFA visa for living in Japan, spouse visa for moving to the States, changing of status upon arriving in the U.S., applying for a green card, getting the green card renewed after two or three years, then finally applying for citizenship. The cattle calls at the INS center in Dallas, which I think were only on Fridays, and you needed to be standing in line before 6 a.m. to see anybody, were nightmarish, but for the most part, I found that if you were neat and diligent in filling out the paperwork and providing backing documentation, you’d sail right through. (Immigration examiners, apparently, think if you’re going to go to all that trouble, you’re probably not pulling a scam.)
I’m glad to hear things aren’t as nasty as they once were. Although the Bush administration streamlined the process somewhat, they also greatly jacked up the fees (putting them beyond the reach of some guy doing day labor), and the spousal unit was part of the large wave of immigrants who were naturalized shortly before the higher fees went into effect.
weaselone
@Steve:
Immigrants may not take jobs away from “real americans”, but illegal immigrants do expand the pool of unskilled labor which does exert a downward pressure on the wages and working conditions of unskilled laborers. That’s why despite all the screeching about illegals the Republican party does, they never seem to do much to prevent businesses from hiring illegals or increase the punishment for those business which are caught.
Brachiator
@Steve:
This is a debatable point, not a matter of fact. And the perception is also just as important as the reality.
Democratic Party leadership can’t do anything about this. To suggest that all Democrats have a unified opinion on this is not true.
And it is a problem without a solution, but it does have political consequences. I’m in Southern California, and I have seen attitudes harden on this issue over the last view years. For example, even though Governor Brown signed a very modest state version of the Dream Act into law, people who oppose it think that American born children of illegal immigrants should be deported, or at least should not be given any breaks. This view was not as hard core a few years ago.
This is another area where, like reproductive rights, conservatives are moving more to an extreme point of view. This gives talk show demagogues like Limbaugh more discontent to exploit.
In practical terms, this means that Obama supporters will have to do more to counter not only media reaction, but the sense of some voters that Obama doesn’t care about “ordinary Americans.”
Steve
@Brachiator: My point is that you constantly offer all sorts of finger-wagging along the lines of “Democrats can’t just write this off as racism,” but you seem to have nothing to say about what Democrats should actually do to address the political problem.
burnspbesq
@Villago Delenda Est:
It’s even more of a win if he actually meant to say “gardener’s quinceanera” instead of “gardener’s daughter’s quinceanera.”
burnspbesq
I assume that the irony that the SecHS who will be administering this new policy is the former Guv of Arizona is not lost on anyone.
Brachiator
@Steve:
I don’t see what the one thing has to do with the other.
You can say that opposition is racist. So what? This is not going to shame anyone into voting for Obama and the Democrats.
And I said that I don’t know what the Democrats can do to adress the political problem. Do you?
I applaud what the president has done. But it is not “comprehensive immigration reform.”
And I can tell you why this problem is going to get worse. And it is not because of a simplistic appeal to racism. It is because the GOP exploits realistic fears of Americans that they are losing ground economically and that Obama is not doing anything to address these fears. It’s bullshit, but it works.
Ah, OK, how does Obama address this? By coming up with another speech outlining a plan to increase jobs and wages, something more than raising taxes and infrastructure investment, something new and that will be harder for Republicans to oppose without looking like total dopes.
Raven Overhill
Looks to me like Obama saved his best civil rights moves for his reelection campaign. It does give a bit of hope for his second term. But only a bit. We know he’s a great salesman–but what is the product?