The President recently announced that his administration would stop enforcing the immigration laws in a limited number of cases primarily involving young students. The media lit up with coverage calling the measure a “policy change” or an “overhaul” of the immigration laws. Then Representatives came to the microphone to decry the measure as sidestepping Congress.
Really.
Only the Congress has the authority to reform laws that are on the books so the President didn’t “overhaul” anything. As I see it, the President merely announced that his administration would reprioritize the limited funding they have for enforcement of immigration laws and the young students in question would be at the bottom of the list. Any assertion that Congress is being sidestepped is curious because Congress has been sidestepping immigration reform for many years – perhaps even decades. Real immigration reform could effectively remove any motivation for coming into the United States illegally and, in so doing, take away the argument to build fences and walls on our borders. Think of all the tax dollars that could be saved.
I think this is more political theater that is made possible by a Congress that is not willing to do their job. They take our votes and then dance to the music played by the corporations and special interests.
In many ways the ideologues are singing from the same sheet of music on immigration as they are for the question on universal background checks when purchasing a gun. First, their ideological group either cuts or refuses to increase the budget for enforcement of the laws already on the books. Then, they argue that since we can’t enforce the laws on the books we shouldn’t pass new laws that may add to the case-load. Finally, they quietly rake in the campaign donations from the special interests.
If we really want to fix this problem with ideology, we must fix the campaign donation system. We can fix the campaign donation system if we stop voting for candidates who take money from any person or group that is not a voter in the district where they are seeking to be elected. If we do this, we fully align the interests of the elected officials with the interests of their constituents – talk about utopia!
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