Obama's second highest priority for his second term is what he calls "Comprehensive Immigration Reform". Of course it's only second behind those tax increases he's lusted after since his first campaign. So he and the Democratic senate are forcing the debate, even though it's low on the list of the country's most critical issues.
All this talk about immigration reform has generated a massive new influx of Mexicans desperately climbing the fences to get in before the law passes, assuming they've got to be in the country to qualify for the amnesty about to be granted by the Democrats.
Most remarkable about Obama's enforcement of immigration law is that he's actually violating it through selective enforcement that is neither fair nor formally sanctioned by the law itself. He's decided to use discretion in which illegal immigrants get processed and which are released. Supposedly if an illegal gets caught but hasn't been convicted of a felony, he or she is turned loose. Otherwise, it's deportation.
But stories abound of illegals with felony records getting released, then committing all manner of crimes in American communities. So I'm not sure the unilateral "policy" dictated by the White House is actually what's being followed.
There's this "Gang of 8" senators, 4 Republicans and 4 Democrats, supposedly meeting in secret to hammer out a grand bargain for immigration reform that might actually pass both houses and become law. Given the current political environment, that seems about as likely has a snowstorm in Hades.
On the Republican side, John McCain and Lindsey Graham are joined by Jeff Flake and Marco Rubio. McCain has been supporting amnesty for illegals since long before he ran for President against Barack Obama. That's a pretty major reason he was unable to beat Obama, as far as I can tell. Lots of folks who found his grandstanding attempts to liberalize his positions to gain the false adulation of the media nauseating.
Equally nauseating is the sycophantic Graham, who is little more than a McCain sidekick. I hear that South Carolina is organizing a strong candidate to unseat Lindsey, and think it's about time.
Rubio's a rising star in the party, and is walking a dangerous fine line by allowing himself to be sucked into this gang. It's practically a no-win situation for Rubio. He may please Mexican immigrants by helping push through an amnesty program, but they still won't vote for him for President. Meanwhile the conservative base will turn away from him if he supports an inherently unfair amnesty program that automatically legalizes millions of people who shouldn't be here, given the presumed millions of others from around the world that want to come but have been blocked because they chose to try the legal route.
Obama is demanding the immediate granting of "legal status" to all the illegals in the country already (translation: Legal Status=Amnesty). Without any prerequisites, especially without securing the border first as Republicans are insisting.
I've posted my solution to the illegal immigration problem elsewhere in the blog, but obviously nobody in the Gang of 8 reads it, so virtually nothing in it is in what they've deigned to share with the public about their proposed legislation.
So I have to default back to the standard GOP requirement: Secure the border first, confirm it's secure, then we'll talk about what to do with the illegals still here.
Jay Leno had the best line I've heard on the subject lately. The press has changed the term "illegal immigrant" to "undocumented Democrat". Most great comedy is rooted in truth.
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