Whew, what a week! Failure to pass the Keystone Pipeline on Tuesday, an executive order granting amnesty for illegal immigrants on Thursday...what could Mary Landrieu's party have planned for her next? Will they take a tiny break next week for Thanksgiving or do they have too much work to do to prevent her from cracking 40%?
Second, the answer is nothing. Obama was going to do these executive orders regardless of how the senate elections went, and the keystone vote only happened because Landrieu quite literally begged Reid to death for several years to allow a clean keystone vote, and he finally obliged.
Any action that greater potential to encourage then discourage future illegal immigration while attempting resolving the issue of those illegals already present is or might as well be amnesty. Were it not for that likelihood, save for the matter of adhering to rule of law, there would be no practical downside to immediately normalizing and not even bothering with "a path".
Obama can prioritize enforcement of different segments all he wants, but when he gets into the business of offering legal status affirmatively, he is overstepping his powers. He can say don't deport (decrminizalize by default), but he has no power to change the official legal status of these four million or so effected by the order or waive employment regulations regarding the hiring of them.
