Incredible – Mr. Obama’s Policy on Young Illegal Immigrants is The Right Thing to Do

Both From a Policy Point of View and a Political Point of View – How Often Does That Happen?

On Friday the Obama administration announced that it would stop trying to make a criminal of and deport a young person who had been brought to this country as a child.

President Obama said Friday his administration will block deportations of hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants who had been brought to the country as children, declaring that it was “the right thing to do” for those affected and for the country.

“Effective immediately, the Department of Homeland Security is taking steps to lift the shadow of deportation from these young people,” Obama said in an appearance in the White House Rose Garden. “Over the next few months, eligible individuals who do not present a risk to national security or public safety will be able to request temporary relief from deportation proceedings and apply for work authorization.”

The rationale behind the policy was nicely explained by Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano.

“Our nation’s immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and sensible manner,” Napolitano said. “But they are not designed to be blindly enforced without consideration given to the individual circumstances of each case. Nor are they designed to remove productive young people to countries where they may not have lived or even speak the language. Discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is especially justified here.”

With the exception of those who view children brought illegally to the nation by their parents as wanton criminals, this policy is the right policy for the United States. It is also the right policy politically.  Mr. Romney wants to “self deport” these so called criminals.  He would make their lives so miserable and so limited that they would ‘voluntarily’ leave the country.  It is a policy that is as wrong as it is inhumane.

Mr. Romney’s position is already splitting the Republican party.  Here is one view.

At a Christian Science Monitor breakfast Friday, former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour (R) forcefully advocated for a program of legalization for illegal immigrants currently in the country.

“We’re not going to deport 12 million people, and we shouldn’t,” said Barbour, who is now helping head the leading pro-Romney super PAC. He pointed out that in many industries, such as the chicken-processing plants in his home state, immigrants are willing to take jobs that no one else will.

“We need more people in America who want to work, in my opinion,” Barbour said. “We need to have a path, not to citizenship, but to a secure knowledge that they can continue to work.”

And here is another.

The new policy drew an immediate rebuke from Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a leading GOP critic of Obama’s immigration policies. He charged that the president was playing partisan politics and had committed a “breach of faith with the American people.”

And Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, trying to have it both ways and still be a contender for the V. P. slot provided these mushy, wimpy statements, more characteristic of a politician than a national leader.

“There is broad support for the idea that we should figure out a way to help kids who are undocumented through no fault of their own, but there is also broad consensus that it should be done in a way that does not encourage illegal immigration in the future,” Rubio said. “This is a difficult balance to strike, one that this new policy, imposed by executive order, will make harder to achieve in the long run.”

Yeah right, anybody understand any of that weasel statement?


Mr. Romney has already made his position clear, he cannot flip flop here.  He should and will be portrayed as a man who wants to make war on children to go along with his party’s war on women’s rights.

As for Mr. Obama, this is leadership on both policy and politics.  Where has that Mr. Obama been for 3 ½ years?