It’s not like he didn’t warn us, so why did we let Obama pull temporary amnesty out of his bag of tricks and dump it in our laps on Thursday night? All the signs were there. He told us what he was going to do. He has a record of making good on his threats. Now we have millions of illegal immigrants to process. The president puts the number at five million, but when it comes to immigration the numbers are reliably unreliable. What’s important is that we are going to spend lots of money checking phony backgrounds, assessing token taxes on illegal work histories, and doing whatever we can to reward illegal immigrants for coming here when we should be sending them home. Are you surprised?
There are five huge problems with the president’s executive action. These aren’t the problems that jump out at you, like the government’s probable inability to process millions of foreigners who, for all intents and purposes, don’t exist. The president didn’t discuss these temporary amnesty problems with the American people. He can’t, because most of them are his fault. Justifying doing something stupid because that’s what America is supposed to be all about won’t make the process easier. It certainly won’t make it cheaper. We’d better figure out a way to deal with what he did, though, because even though Obama didn’t give us a vote or a choice, we’re stuck with his bad decision.
Problem 1: we can’t trust the president about the border
When he signed the 2010 border security bill the president talked about all the resources he had dedicated to keeping our southern boundary secure, claiming:
I have made securing our Southwest Border a top priority since I came to office.¹
Four years later, top priority means we needed an order for temporary amnesty before he could make good on that promise. Why? Obama doesn’t want to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into this country and he is not going to do it, only talk about it while he wages war with the GOP and continues to demand a comprehensive bill.
With laws ignored or selectively enforced, numbers misrepresented, and problems fixed and then suddenly reappearing like last summer’s surge at our “open for business” border, most of us understand that this president is fundamentally incapable of telling the truth about immigration. He uses the same approach he takes with America’s laws. He does whatever he wants. When it comes to the border, we can’t trust anything he says.
Problem 2: there is no accountability to the American people
Accountability from Obama? There is none. Nada. Nothing. This administration couldn’t spell the word “accountable” if it put the entire White House staff on the job.
The most offensive thing about waving accountability in our faces is using it to justify temporary amnesty:
All of us take offense to anyone who reaps the rewards of living in America without taking on the responsibilities of living in America. And undocumented immigrants who desperately want to embrace those responsibilities see little option but to remain in the shadows, or risk their families being torn apart.²
Obama’s order demands we hold illegals accountable by letting them stay, but presidential accountability to American citizens means rewarding foreigners we don’t want or need here and making us pay for it. Yes, for Obama accountability really is that simple.
Problem 3: illegals can’t atone for what they’ve done
The temporary amnesty order rewards years of law breaking. The longer you can stay in the U.S. and get away with it the better you will look to government screeners.
How do you assess taxes for ten years of illegal employment under two or three identities? How do you do a background check on someone with no public records who might have committed a crime under a different name and your next door neighbor’s Social Security number? We can’t and Obama knows it.
Problem 4: there is no “temporary” in politics
In politics the word “temporary” is always a lie. It means forever, until the end of time. The program for the administration’s “childhood arrivals” has already been extended. The only thing temporary about the newest amnesty order is that White House legal brains dreaming up ways for their boss to circumvent the law haven’t yet found a way to make it permanent. They will. Once you give people something you can’t take it away, especially if you are an opportunistic political hack with nothing better to do in your lame duck years than worry about how the country will pay for your legacy.
Problem 5: temporary amnesty is not who we are
Are you tired of being told who you are and what you stand for by someone who hasn’t the slightest clue what makes this country tick?
Are we a nation that tolerates the hypocrisy of a system where workers who pick our fruit and make our beds never have a chance to get right with the law?³
Some of us, this author included, would argue that is exactly the kind of nation we should be. Illegals shouldn’t be working for us at all, but just for laughs, imagine what Obama’s executive order would be if they were making six figure salaries. They would be thrown in prison, stripped of their wealth and possessions, and deported penniless as soon as their sentence was over. Unfortunately for taxpayers, our incomes are meant to make life better for others with less, even if they came here with their pockets empty and their hands out. That’s how a community organizer’s brain works. You take money from those who have it and you give it away. Then you take the credit.
There are few things more cringe-worthy than hearing phrases like “nation of laws” and “play by the rules” uttered by our president. There is no such thing when it comes to immigration. The rule of law has been replaced by the rule of King Obama. He is going to do whatever it takes to make sure that future generations of Democrats can look forward to millions of vote-ready illegals who never left because their grant of temporary amnesty became permanent and put them on the path to citizenship.
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