Thursday, July 3, 2014

The Immigration Reform Collapse

I love the Wall Street Journal, but they've been hopelessly in favor of open borders as long as I've been reading the paper.

Still, the editors come down harshly on the administration's manufactured border crisis, "The Immigration Reform Collapse":
Immigration reform has finally collapsed in Congress for this year, and President Obama and House Republicans are both responsible. The larger loss is for America's economy and dynamism, but as a political matter Republicans are likely to pay the steeper price.

On Monday Mr. Obama chastised Republicans for the failure, but it took two not to tango. The President now says he'll act unilaterally, but his threat all along that he would do so is one reason so many Republicans concluded that they couldn't trust him to honestly implement any reform. One price of Mr. Obama's legal abuses is that few in Congress think he will faithfully execute any law as written.

The President is also responsible for the current spectacle of federal incompetence at the border with Mexico. The worst Republican restrictionists couldn't have come up with a better plan to kill reform than the sight of thousands of children flooding over the border into camps that Homeland Security can't manage. Many of the children are fleeing poverty and mayhem in Central America, but many have been sent by parents who heard rumors that once they get here Mr. Obama will let them stay.

Immigration reform requires some confidence that the federal government can police the border, implement E-Verify for new business hires, and manage revamped guest-worker programs. The televised sight of chaos on the border has been a godsend to GOP nativists...
Well, that's for sure.

Other than that, the editors hammer Republicans, mistakenly, for failure to reach agreement on comprehensive reform. At this point, of course, it's the administration that's taking the bulk of heat from the public. Congress has congenitally low approval ratings in any case. GOP congressional candidates are going to sweep up in November, and Obama will drag down Senate Democrats around the country. It's still 2 1/2 years until November 2016. A lot can happen in the meantime.

More at the link.

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