From Derrick Morgan writing at Heritage.org’s “Capitol Hill” pages : Immigration Reform That Takes Effect in 2017 Isn’t The Answer
Morgan’s article is posted here in its entirety with permission. Our view of the even greater implications of this follow.
Even Sen. Chuck Schumer [D-NY] is acknowledging that the President has a major trust deficit, suggesting that an immigration bill could be passed now and take effect once Barack Obama leaves office.
But current immigration proposals – whether they start this year or in 2017 – have a huge problem: They are still amnesty with a promise of enforcement. This is backward. As House Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman pointed out, it would eliminate the President’s incentive to actually enforce the law — regardless of whether it’s 2014 or 2017.
It is the ordering of the steps that matters. We must have enforcement first – making sure our borders are secure and our workplace laws are being followed before having conversations about how to deal with those who have broken the law.
The unfortunate reality is that Presidents of both parties have failed to adequately enforce our laws, which is supremely unfair to those who do follow the law. That is why it is so important that President Obama or any future administration first demonstrate it is serious about following the law. As a nation we cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the 1986 immigration bill that led us to where we are today. That bill promised a “one-time only” amnesty in exchange for border security and workplace enforcement. Those enforcement promises were never kept.
Washington policymakers must understand that the American people are skeptical of Washington, with record low levels of trust. Asking them to trust Washington on immigration, moreover, is even more preposterous given our past history with the 1986 bill and President Obama’s lackluster record of enforcing laws ranging from drugs to healthcare, and even immigration itself.
The President and his allies should recognize the prospect of immigration reform is in their hands. When his administration demonstrates it is willing to faithfully execute the law, the American people’s trust can be restored over time.
Interestingly, given his infamous push for “comprehensive” immigration reform along the lines of the Schumer- Rubio proposal introduced in the fall, Speaker Boehner does not appear to be succumbing to Schumer’s taunt:~~ If trusting Obama is a problem, pass a bill now but delay enforcement until 2017.
As Heritage suggests, such a law would further disincentivize Obama to enforce existing laws, even justify such continued dereliction. We think Boehner may have also come to the political realization that there should can be no comprehensive package, only that which is necessary for border security and workplace enforcement, for which there is adequate compliance verification. Obama and Democrats have to prove their trustworthiness.
But even more significantly we see the issue of distrust as increasingly significant. We intend to pound the point that, if a proverbial societal tipping point has not been achieved, still some significant political leverage has, due to the greater public realization that Obama cannot be trusted. The problem is that Republican leadership cannot be generally thought of as Archimedes’ acolytes in a political sense. The use of leverage is foreign to them.
Played appropriately, no compromise need be made on any important political matter because of fear of political fallout. Just as “Bush lied” (untrue) became a political rallying cry, so to the truth “Obama and Democrats can’t be trusted ” can be just as effective. He / they can be made the lamest of lame ducks.
The great thing is that it is not cynical. It is entirely a contemporary reality that most of the public understands. A general political response of not going along with the Obamacrat agenda, refusing to bow to Obama and Harry Reid, is politically justifiable. Stopping big government encroachment can be done now. Reversing it can be done by demonstrating our own trustworthiness.
“Vote Republican because Democrats cannot be trusted ” resounds to every level of government. But of course Republican leadership and individual politicians have been less than stalwart at providing a real alternative to Democrats and living up to promises. A simple thing like requiring three days for evaluation prior to voting on a bill was a promise made by Boehner that he abandoned for his own power play. It was both populist and a trust issue but he damaged both for Republicans.
Conversely, Senators like Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and many others in the House have worked to strengthen the Republican brand as reliable. But much of the current Republican leadership sought to denigrate them. With every passing day champions of conservatism are being proved right and leaders instinctive accommodationists like Boehner and McConnell have had to tack conservative for their own political survival. Republican platform philosophy can be made the new populism. But it will require the employment of resolve by leadership up and down the line.
