Update on migration-related policy With the clock ticking on immigration reform in this Congress, House Republicans show no sign of bringing immigration reform legislation to a vote. Advocates, while still pushing House leaders to act, have begun to turn their attention to the president. Since his State of the Union Address, the president has repeatedly promised to use his executive authority to do what he can on any number of issues that remain stalled because of congressional inaction. Immigration advocates—and some members of Congress—are urging him to use his executive authority to mitigate the suffering endured by families due to the broken immigration system. President Obama has, up to now, maintained that he has limited authority to stop deportations. However, on March 14, the president met with reform advocates and told them he has ordered a review, in search of a more “humane” deportation policy. Possible changes being considered, according to press reports, include the easing or stopping the deportations of persons who have no criminal convictions other than immigration violations and a limitation on immigration detainers. Experts—including former ICE Acting Director John Sandweg—have proposed other shifts in policy that would help ease the burden on families. Commentators say that such action by the president would spell the end of immigration reform, as Republicans in the House would take the action as proof that the president is not willing to enforce immigration laws. However, it is looking more like a chicken-and-egg situation. As one House Democratic aide put it to the National Journal: At some point, this summer or later this spring, the prospects of Republicans actually doing something wont pass the laugh test. And the president is in a much freer position to do something that needs to be done. That “something,” as James Oliphant of the National Journal put it, would be “a policy bomb that could be wired to detonate as early as this summer—right in the heat of the 2014 elections.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:59:36 +0000
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