It is painfully clear that one of Barack Obama’s main strategies for winning reelection is to balkanize America; divide us into tribes or special interest groups to whom he can throw crumbs and influence them to support his candidacy. He wants blacks to know that if they have his back, he will have their back. He appeased the feminist with free contraceptives, he appeased labor unions by loading the NLRB with union supporters. He appeased environmentalist by blocking the Keystone pipeline. He appeased gays by supporting their right to marry. And, his latest divide and conquer ploy is to appease Hispanic voters by allowing certain illegal immigrants the right to stay in our country and obtain work visas.
Nothing matters to Mr. Obama except his reelection. This latest ploy of changing immigration is a clear over reach of executive powers. What he is doing is against the laws of this nation. But, Obama believes he is above the law. We saw it when he ignored bankruptcy laws when bailing out General Motors and Chrysler.
Dr. Thomas Sowell expresses his concerns on Obama’s immigration policy changes in this article at Human Events.
President Obama’s latest political ploy — granting new “rights” out of thin air, by Executive Order, to illegal immigrants who claim that they were brought into the country when they were children — is all too typical of his short-run approach to the country’s long-run problems.
By “short-run approach”, Dr. Sowell is implying that if Obama doesn’t win in November, the policy nay be reversed by Romney. I would like to believe that would happen; but I am not as confident as he is. After all, rumor has it that what Obama has done is very much like the plan that Marco Rubio is working on and Rubio appears to have Romney’s ear on this issue. At any rate, Dr. Sowell is right in that there is the possibility that the policy would be reversed in a matter of months. He wonders if employers are likely to hire an illegal and invest time and money in training them if they may have to fire them is six months? Sowell also wonders if an illegal is going to come forward an identify themselves as an illegal if the policy could soon reversed and put them in jeopardy?
Like so many other Obama ploys, his immigration ploy is not meant to help the country, but to help Obama. This is all about getting the Hispanic vote this November.
[…]
How do you check someone’s claim that he was brought into the country illegally when he was a child? If Obama gets reelected, it is very unlikely that illegal immigrants will really have to prove anything. The administration can simply choose not to enforce that provision, as so many other immigration laws are unenforced in the Obama administration.
Clearly our President is playing a dangerous game. Dr. Sowell raps up his piece by stating what we all know to be true:
Ultimately, it does not matter what immigration policy this country has, if it cannot control its own borders. Whoever wants to come, and who has the chutzpah, will come. And the fact that they come across the Mexican border does not mean that they are all Mexicans. They can just as easily be terrorists from the Middle East.
A question that few are asking is: will Obama’s strategy work for him? Will he end up with a net gain in votes as a result of his new immigration policy or will he end up losing net-net? Sean Trende, writing for Real Clear Politics, thinks Obama’s action may end up hurting him on election day. He makes three major points:
- Latinos are underrepresented in swing states.
- There is a trade-off here.
- Latinos aren’t monolithic.
I highly recommend this article because the author provides a lot of history on how Hispanics and working class voters have responded to this subject in previous elections in various states including the swing states. His point No. 2 makes a compelling case that there may be a backlash with the white working class that may make this issue a net lose for Obama.
Point No. 3 in Trende’s article that Latinos are not a monolithic group is very true. Let’s hear what a conservative blogger who is Hispanic has to say on this subject. From The Bitter Americans blog:
…As a Mexican-American who would much rather be referred to as simply American, I am more offended by the gesture than excited and I hope my fellow Hispanic voters feel the same.
…President Obama believes Hispanics are dogs and he can hold a treat in front of our face in order to win our vote. Make no mistake, this decision by his administration was planned and timed in accordance with the upcoming election.
[…]
What President Obama has done takes no steps toward creating a streamlined, simple immigration system. All it does is continue to leave Hispanics in a position of slaves to the Democratic party. He is clearly treating us as dogs – stupid dogs that he believes have no understanding of what he really thinks.
So, is it possible that Obama has actually done us a favor with his most recent dictatorial action? Will his new immigration policy turn into an Oops moment? I’d like to think so.
Well, that’s what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?
Asylum Watch 
Slaves to the Democratic party and the Democratic plantation is very true. And when are people going to realize that allowing illegals to work only drives down the standard wage? I’m sure Hispanics who are here legally and struggling will not appreciate that.
Even the Governor of Arizona pulled 40% of the Latino vote.
I agree with point 2 – there is a trade off. However, I think the net-net is in favor of Obama with the Hispanic vote.
Regarding point 1, it depends what one considers a “swing state”. Certainly the biggest of all “swing states” is Florida and there Latinos are over-represented.
In general terms, immigration is not – and it has not been in the past – a winning issue for Republicans. I warned before about the hard line that Romney (and all other Republicans) were taking on immigration during the primaries. They have to walk that back now.
The reason I support Marco Rubio for the ticket is because he can bring a balance to the immigration position of the Republican Party. There is no getting away from the fact that to throw 13% of the voters into the arms of the opposition is not smart, and it gets less and less smart with time as this 13% is growing at a faster rate than any other group of voters.
The Republicans won’t have to walk their positions back if Trende is right about the white working class backlash.
Imho, Obama’s new immigration move is already an “Oops!” moment.
Though I and the majority of Latinos and other Americans think its a good idea whose time has come, everyone knows he is doing it now for one and only one reason… to get reelected.
Nobody will respect the President for that, no matter how good the idea is.
But above it all, government by fiat jeopardizes our form of democracy, usurps the separation of powers and will be seen for it is… anti-American authoritarian rule.
“But above it all, government by fiat jeopardizes our form of democracy, usurps the separation of powers and will be seen for it is… anti-American authoritarian rule.”
Precisely! On your point that thus was a good idea whose time has come, I would disagree that the time has come. First we must secure our borders.
The point that this has been done by decree escapes most people and could care less. That is just as dangerous in my mind as the edict handed out.
In fact, it is more dangerous, IMO, Bunker.
Very good analysis, Jim. I agree that the whole thing is a stunt. That much is obvious. I also believe that a lot of this will be background noise by the time of the November elections. Obama will undoubtedly gain some Hispanic votes, but this may cause him to lose some, elsewhere.
To say that there may be a backlash by Hispanics towards Obama is a mistake, I believe. More correctly, most people will vote their pocketbooks as usual.
It is interesting that Pew research reports, “Most Hispanics do not see a shared common culture among U.S. Hispanics.” They are certainly not monolithic. Some don’t even want to be called Hispanic.
The author was talking about, white working class baxklash, Bob. I don’t know if he is right; but he made a good argument.
Jim, I apparently cannot do HTML links in the comment section. Here is the Pew link URL:
http://www.pewhispanic.org/2012/04/04/when-labels-dont-fit-hispanics-and-their-views-of-identity/
Thanks for the artivle link. Very interesting.
I do think this is going to come back to haunt him, and I think hsi gay marriage “evolution”will come back to haunt his as well. He believes that most Americans agree with him on all the issues and he thinks this will win him support, but while it might fire up his base they were going to vote for him anyway. Most people oppose Obama on these issues and I think this will make many moderates and independents who voted for him the first time have second thoughts about doing so again.
And by the way, ROmney has basically said he opposed Obama for using an EO to implement this new policy whereas he would use the legislature because it would make it more permanent, so ROmney is no better than Obama on this issue.
Unfortunately, you are right about Romney. It will take a conservative Congress to keep him in line and I not confident we will have one.
The immigration move may gain him some Hispanic voters, but the President’s recognition of same-sex marriage may have cost him some of those same Hispanic voters. Many of them are very religious and have a good deal of dislike for homosexuality. That may be a trade off, in and of itself.
It is hard to gauge the effect this will have on the election. There is a political lifetime between now and the election.
Yes sir, there is a political lifetime from now until the elections.
Everyone should oppose this bit of illegal pandering, regardless of their political persuasion. The executive has no authority to make laws or to refuse to enforce them. Allowing either a Republican or a Democratic president to operate with such autocratic illegality is just one more step toward the total destruction of the Constitutional republic.
Amen, Bob.
I couldn’t agree more, Bob. The left should fear a dictator as much as the right.
Great summary. Certainly, some kind of amnesty is in order, particularly for the people who really did grow up here. Spanish speaking immigration is already receding, but it would be nice to see the amnesty come a decade or so after border security is sorted out.
O agree. Securing our border is an absolute must before we can hope to address our immigration issues.
I read that RCP analysis as well. He gets nothing from this. Not only is he not as smart as his worshipers claim he is, he and his team appear to be politically stupid tin-eared plonkers.
“stupid tin-eared plonkers”, well said, Kurt.
Obama is grasping at straws right now. He’s doing anything and everything, no matter how ill-advised, to secure re-election. Let’s see, in the past week:
1-His attorney general is held in contempt of congress and Obama declares excecutive privledge–which in turn, gives the illusion of a huge cover-up in Fast & Furious.
2-He is lamblasted from all political sides for his White House giving out classified information.
3-He is trembling, awaiting a ruling on his signature Healthcare bill from the Supremes.
4. He circumvents congress and the constitution, yet again, on illegal immigration law.
Tell me. Has he done ANYTHING of to IMPROVE our nation in the last week, month or 3 1/2 years?
And, he’s got the MSM covering for him and playing the race card every few minutes it seems.
I know everything obama does is to serve his own interests and that of his mad leftist agenda.
I’d like to think that the election of obama is a big ‘oops’ moment for most Americans. An ‘oops’ they’re looking forward to correcting soon.
That’s an Oops! moment we are going to fix in November, God willing.
It is true that there are a lot of unknown factors about Romney and what policies he would implement.
That said, he is not Obama.
Immigration reform is indeed necessary. No doubt about it. But the priority should be sealing our borders before moving on with any other reform.
Exactly, AOW. Once we have the borders under control, most Americans would be willing to be more flexable on what to do with the illegals that are here.