Sneak Peek, Wednesdays Syndicated Column -- RUBEN NAVARRETTE COLUMN (Advance for Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013, and thereafter. Web release Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, at 8 p.m. EST) (For Navarrette clients only) The fog of immigration reform By RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR. SAN DIEGO -- If Americans want to fix the immigration system, the first thing they need to do is cut through the fog of lies, contradictions and partisan spin that make it hard to see what is really going on. Then theyll understand who is really to blame for the fact that we dont have comprehensive immigration reform and the adjoining fact that a record number of illegal immigrants -- nearly 2 million -- have been deported, and thousands of families divided, in the last five years. The Framers divided the government into three branches -- and gave the executive branch the power to enforce the law, including immigration law. So it follows that President Obama and his administration are responsible for dividing all those families, and deporting all those people. Period. Still, it wont be easy to clear the air because the media, self-serving advocacy groups and the White House are all busy operating fog machines. The good news is that, now and then, a stiff breeze blows in, and the fog lifts -- if only temporarily. It happened in September when seven undocumented immigrants, working with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, were arrested outside the White House for protesting the administrations immigration policies. Pablo Alvarado, the organizations executive director, issued a statement warning that by deporting more than 1,100 people a day, Obama was in the process of cementing his legacy as having presided over the most anti-immigrant administration in history. And it happened again just a few weeks ago, when Ju Hong, an undocumented student from South Korea who graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in political science, confronted Obama. The president had gone to the Betty Ann Ong Chinese Recreation Center in San Francisco to talk about the immigration stalemate in Congress and put the blame entirely on Republicans. Hong pleaded with Obama to use executive power to stop deportations and the dividing of families, which Obama insisted he couldnt do without passing laws in Congress. Unbelievable. You cant act like an all-powerful chief executive when it comes to loosening a health care law that has been passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court to allow people to keep their insurance policies and then, when confronted with the sticky wicket of immigration, cast yourself as powerless…
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 22:06:41 +0000
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