President Barack Obama has ordered a shift in immigration policy. According to The New York Times, he ordered a review of deportations in March, citing sympathy for the harm it has caused to families in the United States. But although the president claims he ordered the secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, to conduct the evaluation on deportation of illegal immigrants, The New York Times published an article this week that found “two-thirds of the nearly two million deportation cases [since President Obama took office] involve people who had committed minor infractions, including traffic violations, or had no criminal record at all.” The Obama administration has also set a record for the deportation of immigrants from the U.S., according to the same article. If Obama wants to set an example, wants to extend a hand to the millions of illegal immigrants in the U.S., he has failed. Of the many complaints registered against the Obama administration, that is the most damning.
Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder claimed a “vast amount of discretion” in enforcing federal law, according to the NY Post. It has become apparent that the Obama administration is more concerned with political manipulations than with the humanitarian causes espoused in Obama’s campaign. As The New York Times noted, “five years into his presidency, neither side is satisfied.” Obama has failed to convince the Republican Party that he is hard enough on illegal immigration, and he has failed to convince immigration advocates that he is actually concerned with the effects deportation policies are having on the families of the deported. While Obama apparently felt comfortable enough to promise flexibility to Dmitry Medvedev in 2012 after his second presidential election, in regards to his nuclear and foreign policy, he does not enjoy the same ease when dealing with immigration reform in the domestic arena of the U.S.
Obama is past his last election, and while the concern for his party’s viability is understandable, the U.S. electorate is long past caring. We have chosen our sides, and studies continue to find that we vote according to those choices, regardless of the reality of the situation.
While Obama may be unable to force the world he dreamed of during the campaign onto the larger U.S., he owes it to those who voted for him to respect what he claimed he would do once in office. If he has the flexibility and discretion he claims to have in enforcing federal law, he should act like it rather than claiming his hands are tied.
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