WASHINGTON – As media outlets such as ABC, Fox News and CBS decided to not air Barack Obama’s decision to shield nearly five million illegal immigrants, they missed out on a front row seat to a bold—and daring—political gamble.
In a move that Republicans are calling a constitutional overreach and House Majority Leader, John Boehner (R-OH) accusing Obama of acting like a king, Obama’s executive order is not without precedent, as past U.S. Presidents have also issued executive orders.
In going alone, Obama has gone all in tying his presidential legacy to such a bold move. According to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, 48 percent of Americans are against Obama acting alone on immigration, as opposed to 38 percent. In doing so, Obama may have empowered the GOP to begin talks of lawsuits, impeachment and fired up an already-livid GOP/Tea Party voting bloc in 2016.
“I continue to believe that the best way to solve this problem is by working together to pass that kind of common sense law,”
“But until that happens, there are actions I have the legal authority to take as President – the same kinds of actions taken by Democratic and Republican presidents before me – that will help make our immigration system more fair and more just.”
“The actions I’m taking are not only lawful, they’re the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican president and every single Democratic president for the past half century,” U.S. President Barack Obama, on announcing an executive order for immigration reform.
Perhaps it is due to the toxic and bitterly divided partisan new age of American politics, that the Republicans feel the need to once again attack Obama for doing something on immigration, when they have failed to do so themselves after presenting a bill in January.
In addition to addressing immigration reform, Obama’s executive action will also make a number of changes to current immigration policy such as redefining Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to have agents focus more on recent border-crossers, per The Huffington Post.
The expansion of (DACA) or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy–commonly known as the DREAM Act, currently gives relief and work authorization to young undocumented immigrants, who came to the United States as children, will now allow 270,000 additional undocumented immigrants to qualify under Obama’s new action by allowing them to apply for a three-year work permit if they can pass a background check, register with the government, submit biometric data, and prove they are eligible for relief, per CBS News.
While both sides can argue and debate the civics of whether Obama circumvented the Constitution in going alone and calling out Congress to “pass a bill”, Obama bravely called out the obstructionist Republicans and their do-nothing agenda.
The question that remains to be answered is, in calling out the Republican’s bluff on addressing a broken immigration system, is Obama’s executive action enough to force their hand?
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