Talk Elections

Link. (http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/15/12238794-obama-administration-wont-seek-deportation-of-young-illegal-immigrants?lite)

Updated 12:20 p.m. - The Obama administration announced on Friday that it would no longer seek the deportation of most young illegal immigrants, and would instead allow them to apply for work permits, a significant policy shift with potentially major electoral implications.
The Department of Homeland Security said that, effective immediately, the government would no longer seek the deportation of illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, and would allow them to apply for work permits if they meet certain criteria.
“Our nation’s immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and sensible manner,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in a statement Friday.

A senior administration official said in a conference call with reporters that as many as 800,000 undocumented immigrants stand to benefit from this change. Napolitano said that the shift represented neither immunity nor amnesty -- buzzwords for conservatives who oppose illegal immigration -- but instead represented an instance of "prosecutorial discretion" in which the government had re-evaluated its priorities in enforcing the law.

The announcement represented a major policy shift, and its political implications will be significant.

The shift essentially accomplishes many of the legislative intentions of the DREAM Act, an immigration reform bill that had stalled in Congress due to Republican objections. President Barack Obama favors the legislation, while presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has said he would veto that law.

The new rule comes amid a bruising election year fight between Obama and Romney, in which the Latino vote could be decisive. Obama enjoys a strong advantage with Latino voters, winning 61 percent of Latinos vs. 27 percent for Romney in a mid-May NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll.

The Hispanic vote is of particular importance in swing states like Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Florida, among others. Those states could swing the election toward Obama or Romney, elevating the importance of the margin between the two candidates with Latino voters.
Obama's biggest challenge, though, has involved motivating Latino voters to turn out for him with the same strength they had in 2008. The president had faced lingering complaints stemming from his inability to advance the comprehensive immigration reform he had promised as a candidate in 2008.

The president was scheduled to make remarks about the immigration policy change at the White House at 1:15 p.m. ET on Friday.

In a memorandum to immigration enforcement officials, Napolitano wrote that immigrants who were illegally brought to the United States as children "lacked the intent to violate the law," and pose few national security risks.

The memo said the government would not pursue immigrants who met five criteria. Individuals must:
-Have come to the United States under the age of 16,
-Be no older than 30,
-Be currently enrolled in school, have graduated high school or served in the military,
-Have been in the country for five continuous years, and
-Have a clean criminal record.

A senior administration official noted that the new rules were not permanent, though, and conceded that a different administration with a different policy could conceivably choose to withdraw this regulation.

"The executive can always change its mind about how to exercise discretion," said the official.
That hard-line stance prompted handwringing among Republicans who have long worried about the long-term political fallout associated with alienating Latino voters. Florda Gov. Jeb Bush suggested earlier this week that much of the Republican rhetoric surrounding immigration had been "insulting."

"Change the tone would be the first thing," he said of his advice to Republicans. "Second, on immigration, I think we need to have a broader approach."

Ironically, the Obama administration's new rule would accomplish many of the same goals of a limited version of the DREAM Act proposed by Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, which stops short of offering young illegal immigrants citizenship, but gives them a type of legal status. Romney said he was considering the proposal from Rubio, a popular choice of conservatives to round out the Republican ticket as a vice presidential nominee.

In a statement, Rubio straddled praise and criticism for the move.
"Today’s announcement will be welcome news for many of these kids desperate for an answer, but it is a short term answer to a long term problem," he said. "And by once again ignoring the Constitution and going around Congress, this short term policy will make it harder to find a balanced and responsible long term one."

Just read this. I'm stunned. The Romney campaign is going to be doing backflips.

Stunned? JNap wrote the memo last year. Another shiny object.

Good look winning the Hispanic vote!

That's like saying, "Good luck winning the black vote!"

Well, blacks are a lot more Dem than Hispanics, but still....90% vs 75%? Landslide victory, either way. :)

And your party seriously needs to pick up some Hispanic votes if it wants to survive demographically.

I'm watching the white vote. I read that Obama's campaign is most fearful of alienating white voters. Does he really want to begin a second term having lost 60-70% of whites?

Whites are a spent force, Mike. There will not be another White president in your lifetime. Deal with it.

Obama has still deported far more illegal immigrants than Bush.

LOLNO, Obama won't be losing 70% of the White vote. I don't think even McGovern did that badly. Yup, just looked it up on Gallup- McGovern got 32%. Still terrible, but this isn't 1972.

Looking objectively, I don't see this backfiring at all. Obama either gains or breaks even with this announcement. He breaks even if he loses the same amount of votes among whites that he gains among hispanics. But I have a feeling that the white democrats who might be angered by this are the type who probably didn't even vote for him in 2008.

And honestly, doesn't this policy make more sense? He may be doing it as a campaign tactic, but at least it's one that will make life easier for a lot of people. These young folks likely didn't have any choice in their parents' decision to immigrate. They're contributing members to society, most of them go to school, work or serve in the military. They deserve to stay here.

More troubling, I think, is that this is a clear example of Obama absolutely pandering for the Hispanic vote.

How do you define "pandering" vs. "absolutely pandering"?

Presidents do stuff to encourage people to vote for them. There are shameful policies, there are embarrassing ones, and then there are efforts that wouldn't have happened if not for the election but people are glad they did. I can think of many worse examples than this, and this has the benefit of being good policy.

The Romney campaign absolutely does not want this issue discussed again now that he's won the primary and has already banked the votes of the Anglos who vote on this issue. He's busy trying to reach out to Latinos and repair the damage he did by attacking all of his opponents (Gingrich and Perry in particular) from the right on immigration.

Agree, btw Obama just got heckled by a reporter in the Rose Garden.

This isn't politically popular, but it was the right thing to do.

The old policy wasn't working. At all.

Here's the Republican website that sent the reporter to heckle Obama.

http://dailycaller.com/

The right-wing brain trust sure knows how to squander whatever political advantage they might have otherwise gained.

This is the tactic this summer - like when they sent a van to circle his Cleveland speech and blast its horn, or they disrupted the Axelrod speech in Boston. They're trying to get him to react and act up so they can then use it against him.

Don't worry, Mike, you can always consider pulling Michael Jackson in reverse in order to fulfill your political ambitions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoo1efMSYhs&feature=player_embedded

Wow. Is the President really that gray or is that the sun hitting his head?

Sun.

I just saw the part of the speech where he was heckled. Disgusting.

What a perfect example of the breakdown in civil discourse in this country. And once again, there are people on the other side who refuse to give an ounce of respect or deference to Obama and the office he holds. And everyone knows why this is.

I know I shouldn't take you seriously but this post is embarrassing.

Steve King, one of the Iowa representative plans to sue the Obama administration over the new immigration policy.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/15/rep-steve-king-to-sue-obama-administration-over-new-immigration-policy/#disqus_thread (http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/15/rep-steve-king-to-sue-obama-administration-over-new-immigration-policy/#disqus_thread)

Why is this controversial? America is a better country than one that tosses people aside for something their parents did.

Obama is trying to pander more votes for him, plain and simple.

Regardless of if this was a political move, it was the right move and I'm glad he did it.

I wonder if Obama will break 80% among Latinos?  The remaining 20% will consist of Miami Cubans, and various employees of Mitt Romney's palatial estates, so he won't be able to break into that demographic no matter how hard he tries.

In this case, trying to deliver on a campaign promise he made to these voters four years ago where he got blocked by Congress. It's "pandering" in the sense that making promising to voters and then fulfilling them is "pandering."

I think Obama was worried he meant lose the state that you live in thats why he did this whole thing not to deport 16-29 year old illegals. The polls in CO have been tightening in the past 2 months and each campaign knows they have to win CO to win the election.

No probably 75% of the Hispanic Vote he will win.

I agree it had to be done but it is temporary band-aid. In my opinion the people who were bought to the US illegally by their parents should pay back retro-active taxes that they might owe. You can't dodge taxes just because you were brought here illegally.

My band-aid theory goes further than paying back retro-active taxes. If you are here illegally and you came here say when you are 40(say in 2002) and are still at age 50 this year you should pay back retro active taxes, a fine(since you came here illegally), and know english. If you can't do any of these 3 things you should go back to your orginal country that you grew up in.

The pandering theory comes in because it is 4-5 months before the presidential election.

Well this should lock up the agribusiness vote for Obama.  A group of workers who dare not be in the least bit uppity or complaining least it screw up their chance to get legal status is exactly what they want.  The intent is good, and it may be good politics, but this is bad policy in any number of ways.

Having grown up on the Texas-Mexico border, I can tell you Obama isn't "deporting" illegal aliens.

With the terrible economy that followed the Obama-Reid-Pelosi seizure of Congress (and, yes, Bush's failure to stand up to them), the illegals are reporting themselves and so Obama is giving them "free rides home" at our taxpayer expense.  They'll all be back (with friends and relatives) as soon as the economy turns around.

Good to see President Obama finally got himself a spine.  


Not yet -at least, not for another generation or so.   By retaining over half the overall population in the United States until around mid-century, they will still be a dominant force in American politics for some time to come. But we are in the final decades of having one dominant race lording it over others.  

Love the way Erin Burnett is spinning this:

"Obama makes MVP-like move."
"Republicans backed into a corner."
"GOP left flat-footed."
"Pathetic Republicans."
"Republicans handed Obama a political victory."

I think this is really a disgusting way to play this up. I hope Obama keeps doing stuff like this--eventually Obama's pandering is going to become really transparent and middle-class Americans are not going to be happy.

That's why I think the race is tightening. Very little credit goes to Romney. I believe the more Obama campaigns, the more he seems to dodge his record, and the more transparent he becomes.

That post is actually funny with the free rides and illegal immigrants deporting themselves.

But in all seriousness Obama has deported(well the immigration officials) have deported alot of criminal illegal immigrants.

Well I agree with Erin Burnett that Obama did back Republicans into a corner by forcing Romney to move to the center on immigration in my opinion. She shouldn't have said pathetic republicans or Obama made an MVP like move though. Yes the Republicans had an opportunity to vote yes on the "DREAM Act" before but it was not a bigger part of an immigration reform package. It looks like Romney is gonna roll with Rubio on this issue for good or bad though.

Yeah Obama always panders to the left and never to the middle-of the road voters that he needs to win re-election.

Don't really care.. But it's a step in the right direction.

Interesting move by Obama. I support it though I think he would have been better served to have made these base consolidating moves last year, or during the Republican primary.

Still, Republicans had best tread carefully in their response, lest they demonize Latinos even more.

This move is offensive to Republicans because they only approve of Obama taking political steps that piss off his base or can be successfully blocked by Republicans.

And yes, I know this post is headed straight for some mine or another in the Forum Community but I don't care.

I am old enough to remember when the base of the Democratic Party was American workers.

Because someone who came here at age 3 from a country they don't remember, speaks fluent English, and enrolled in college can never be considered a real American.

How confident are you that every one of the 800,000 to 1,000,000 aliens are as you describe?

There are quite a few ways to get legal American citizenship.  Most countries in the world have fairly strict immigration policies.  Some countries in the middle east you can't immigrate to because you are the wrong religion. 

The easiest way to get American citizenship is to get married to an American citizen for 5 years.  Granted, most of the current green card marriages are fraud in the current system, it is still the fastest and quickest road to citizenship.  I am not advocating fraud or defrauding the American government, but those are the facts. 

The ones who behave badly  -- as in criminally -- can be deported. That could be for drunk driving, drug possession, shoplifting, or domestic violence.

Because he cares more about non-citizens than the actual citizens of the country? 

Republicans only want to Obama to take steps to piss of his base? Lets see Obama wanted the following: Payroll Tax Cuts, Patent Reform, and Jobs Bill. Republicans gave him what he wanted each time. Student Loan Bill will be done soon as well although I do agree with Obama that Construction Workers should be put back to work and be introduced as Jobs Bill Part  II.

Is that before or after Obama issues a presidential pardon?

But you can keep believing that brown people are all Murrca-hatin' evildoers if it makes you happy.  USA!  USA!  USA!