On June 30, in response to the growing border crisis and opposition to immigration reform from Congress, U.S. President Barack Obama promised to use his executive powers by the end of the summer to “fix as much of our immigration system as we can. If Congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours.” President Obama had good reason to make such a strong statement — in June, more than 52,000 (now 63,000) unaccompanied children were detained at the border.
Instead of approving Obama’s request for $3.7 billion in emergency funds, which would have increased law enforcement, built and improved detention centers, quickened deportation hearings and sent aid to Central American countries, the House passed a relatively paltry $694 million funding bill.
Obama had several options for executive action to combat the growing humanitarian crisis and the political gridlock in Congress: suspend the deportations of the DREAMers (illegal immigrants brought to the USA as young children), grant more green cards to foreign workers, issue humanitarian parole to certain groups of immigrants or extend temporary work visas to spouses.
Instead, the president failed to act on immigration issues, alternatively choosing to play politics. Earlier this month, the White House announced intentions to wait until the November midterm elections are over before pursuing immigration reform at the executive level. With incredibly tight Senate races in states such as Louisiana, Arkansas and North Carolina, avoiding this inflammatory topic would have helped support Democratic candidates in the elections.
The White House has denied the accusations that this was solely a political move. A White House official told several media outlets, “The reality the president has had to weigh is that we’re in the midst of the political season, and because of the Republicans’ extreme politicization of this issue, the president believes it would be harmful to the policy itself and to the long-term prospects for comprehensive immigration reform to announce administrative action before the elections.” This was a sentiment that Obama reiterated on Meet the Press.
This defense is laughably inept. In his original promise in June, Obama stated that because of the politicization of immigration reform in Congress and Congress’s inability to pass any comprehensive reform, he would do as much as he could with executive actions. Yet the White House is now arguing that acting in such a polarized environment would be harmful to long-term immigration reform potential.
This obvious about-face on the desire to push ahead with reform is a blatantly political move, devoid of any long-term insight and empathy for the millions of undocumented immigrants working in the U.S. and those detained on the border. For although shying away from a controversial topic will give Democrats a boost in the midterm elections, it is an objective political failure.
Erika Andiola, the co-director of the Dream Action Coalition, a group that lobbies and advocates for undocumented youth, responded to Obama’s decision to delay executive action, saying, “It’s just really, really ridiculous to see that they’re basically once again throwing the Latino community under the bus when it comes to politics.”
By continuing his administration’s predisposition to inaction on immigration reform, Obama comes off as weak, indecisive and uncaring toward the Latino and immigrant communities — the same demographic that comprises a sizable portion of his voting base.
But aside from political failure, Obama’s decision to delay any action is a moral failure as well. In June, he rightfully declared, “We now have an actual humanitarian crisis on the border that only underscores the need to drop the politics and fix our immigration system once and for all.”
Yet, for this enthusiasm, the political stagnation continues. Unfortunately, just three months later, even though the number of immigrants apprehended at the border has dropped from 250 per day to between 50 and 100, the humanitarian crisis rages on, as do the politics.
Drug smugglers and human traffickers ship unaccompanied children across the border — children who are only trying to escape a life of horrific violence and poverty. The 1,100 daily deportations, which the Obama administration has the authority to slow, break up families and send talented and contributing potential U.S. citizens back to their home countries. The moral obligation to act on immigration reform has not changed. It appears that the political obligation to act is the president’s sole impetus.
While Congress has done much to derail immigration reform and is just as much to blame (if not more) for the political stagnation, let us not be mistaken: Obama’s failures are his own. No matter what narrative the White House is pushing forward, he has independently decided against taking any executive action on immigration. Unless Obama utilizes his dwindling time in the White House to address immigration, his willful inaction on a heartbreaking humanitarian crisis will leave an ugly, indelible mark on his legacy.
