“[T]he fear of Obama not executing the law has always been a lame excuse for not proceeding with immigration reform. What’s better—the current situation, where Obama unilaterally changes the laws by bits and pieces, or a new legislative structure that he will be obliged to abide by after signing? – Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post 5/29/14
Fact Check: What Rubin refers to is the declaration of House Republicans, even those who favor amnesty, that they cannot reach agreement with Obama because they cannot trust him to keep future promises of enforcement because he generally refuses to enforce immigration laws now. It’s hard to understand why Rubin thinks this issue with Republicans is a “lame excuse.” Does she really believe that “a new legislative structure” would make Obama any more willing to enforce the law than he is at present?
Further adding to the distrust was the president’s order in March to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to review deportation policies, to make them more “humane.” He did so in response to demands of illegal alien advocates who believe that deportation itself, with few exceptions, is inhumane. Another reason the president issued this directive was to serve notice to House Republicans that if they didn’t pass an amnesty bill soon, he would ignore Congress and take action himself. Potomac Research analyst Greg Valliere noted that Obama’s message was clear: “If you fail to act, deportation policy will be liberalized.”
This power play, however, backfired and made House Republicans even more distrustful. Seeing his mistake, Obama recently announced that completion of the review would not be completed until the end of summer. Evidently, he thought that giving the Republicans more time to consider his plan would make them more amenable to it.
Truly there is no reason why they should be, because extortion delayed is still extortion. What the Republicans ought to do is let Obama know they will not pass amnesty—and that they will not tolerate any more of his unilateral steps to subvert immigration law with his arbitrary decrees. They should go beyond simple distrust of Obama to righteous determination to stop his usurpation of power.
If they care about constitutional government, with proper division of powers among the branches of government, they have no excuse for not taking up this challenge. Their excuses for not doing so are as lame as can be.