Premature celebrations?:La Jornada warns that President Obama
may lack the 'necessary determination' to make good on
his plans
to regularize millions of undocumented immigrants.
Undocumented
Cannot Count on Obama's Migration Initiative (La Jornada, Mexico)
"It is fair
to wonder whether Obama has the necessary determination to carry out his plan to
offer temporary migration regularization, particularly given what this may mean
for the remainder of his term. Among other things, the possibility exists that
the Republican opposition will hold up passage of the country's budget package
for next year, which would bring significant economic risk not only to the
United States but the world."
President of the United States Barack Obama yesterday
announced the adoption of a regularization plan to grant five to eleven million
undocumented migrants living in the country legal status for the next two years.
To take advantage of the change in requirements one must demonstrate having
been in the United States for five years, the existence of children or dependent
permanent residents in the U.S., with potential beneficiaries subject to a criminal
background check. In the short term, the measure could halt the deportations of
about 4 million people.
In short, nearly six years after Obama's arrival in the
White House, this is the first real crystallization of the promise of a
president favoring migrants. It is a sector that, contrary to the expectations initially
generated around the figure of the president, has been treated particularly
ruthlessly by immigration authorities, to such an extent that the current
administration has carried out more deportations that any in history.
The announced measures are a demonstration by the president
himself of what the country's pro-immigration sectors have said throughout the
past five years: that the U.S. chief executive has sufficient power and
authority by itself to propel a change of immigration policy without passing
through the filter of legislative reform.
Paradoxically, this demonstration of presidential power comes
at the moment of Obama's greatest political weakness after his party lost
control of both houses of Congress and the White House seems reduced to
political irrelevance.
In that sense it is reasonable to assume that just because
the president announced these measures doesn't necessarily imply that they will
be carried out successfully: the method presages a new clash between the
executive and legislative branches. The latter, represented by Speaker of the House
of Representatives John Boehner, has argued that what Obama wants to do is
"regularize" criminal activity (which is the phase used to describe undocumented
migration by the right of that country) and violate the country's separation of
powers with an action that exceeds the constitutional power of the presidency.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
It is therefore fair to wonder whether Obama has the
necessary determination to carry out his plan to offer temporary migration
regularization, particularly given what this may mean for the remainder of his
administration. Among other things, the possibility exists that the Republican
opposition will hold up passage of the country's budget package for next year,
which would bring significant economic risk not only to the United States but the
world; along with the prospect of a systematic blockage of future changes to
the White House cabinet.
Given the great political cost involved with such a
confrontation, it would have been more desirable for the president to contemplated
benefitting the entire undocumented population. On the other hand, if Obama manages
to push forward with his new immigration plan, not only would his greatly
criticized presidency and place in history be partially vindicated, but he would
settle an undeniable debt to the Latin American electorate who supported him in
his two nominations, which has among its fundamental demands a change in the official
policy of persecution, criminalization, discrimination and legalized abuse of
migrants.
