Obama Administration Needs to Re-think its Entire Immigration Strategy

The President is under pressure from a narrow constituency of his party to push a big amnesty initiative this year. The administration is sending conflicting signals for a good reason. In the absence of any evidence the Obama Administration is serious about enforcing our immigration laws, the current economic and labor market conditions make any suggestions of a mass amnesty bill politically absurd. So called “comprehensive immigration reform” has become synonymous with “amnesty mandatory, enforcement optional.” Consider the track record to date. Since taking office, the Obama Adminstration has rolled-back worksite enforcement, questioned the utility of REAL ID as a security enhancing measure, questioned the use of so-called 287(g) state-federal cooperative enforcement strategies, backed off completing the border fence as originally planned, opposed making the E-Verify program permanent and mandatory, and opposed mandating the use of E-Verify as part of the Stimulus spending bill. At a time when millions of Americans are being thrown out of work and families are struggling everywhere, how could this Administration plausible convince anyone that flooding the labor market with more foreign labor — much of having entered illegally — is going to help open up or create jobs for American workers? The only “change” we need here is for Obama to change his mind.