Policy reversal

President Obama’s popularity is plunging with the left as well as the right, largely because of federal inaction on favored liberal causes such as immigration reform. Last week, in a nod to the president’s base and the Latino voters he needs to win re-election, the Obama administration announced a major switch in immigration policy that creates a back door to amnesty — a change that never would have passed Congress.

The administration intends to halt the deportation proceedings of illegal immigrants who are not deemed a threat to public safety. Some of these illegal immigrants have been accused of misdemeanors, traffic violations and other minor offenses — on top of their initial crime of entering the United States illegally, of course. In reviewing some 300,000 pending deportations, case by case, the administration will especially favor those who are attending school, are the head of a household or have family in the military.

Nearly 400,000 illegal immigrants were deported from the United States in each of the past two years, and immigration courts have huge backlogs. The Obama administration says the order is intended to “identify low-priority cases … and administratively close the case so they no longer clog the system,” an official told The Wall Street Journal.

But closing those cases not only allows those illegal immigrants to remain in the United States, it lets them apply for work permits. Additionally, millions of illegals won’t have to worry about entering the federal system in the first place if their contact with law enforcement is minor in nature.

“In essence, the administration has declared that U.S. immigration is now virtually unlimited to anyone willing to try to enter — subject only to those who commit violent felonies after arrival,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the Journal.

This course reversal comes despite a growing national sentiment in favor of strong immigration enforcement. State legislatures across the country have passed many new immigration enforcement bills and considered dozens of others. Over the years, voters have overwhelmingly favored denying public benefits to illegal immigrants, from driver’s licenses to in-state college tuition.

“The administration should enforce immigration laws, not look for ways to ignore them,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and illegal immigrant advocacy groups, on the other hand, cheered the president’s move.

This end-around maneuver, executed while the president and Congress are on vacation, is an affront to representative democracy. Whether one agrees with the policy or not, the president is attempting to impose by fiat what he couldn’t accomplish legislatively. And that’s a dangerous approach. We didn’t elect a king.