My must read of the day is "Pitfalls of Immigration Reform," in National Review:
Legalization without citizenship would split the base and offer few political dividends with the center. The driving force behind many Republicans’ skepticism about an immigration deal is not a fear that illegal immigrants will be granted citizenship; it is a worry that legalization will be traded for empty promises of enforcement. Legalization without citizenship, then, may be too clever by half: It sounds like an equitable splitting of the difference, but it misses the real point of concern for many Americans.
The Obama administration’s cavalier use of executive authority gives many on the right good reason to fear that any promises of enforcement will be broken faster than the president’s guarantee that if you like your health plan you can keep it. Further, the Obamacare rollout has been one example of bureaucratic incompetence after another; what are the odds that new immigration-enforcement rules, which will probably fall far below Obamacare on the president’s list of priorities, will be smoothly applied?
Something needs to be done when it comes to immigration. We have 11 million people living in America illegally. However, what this article points out is that there are real reasons to be weary of reform that aren’t just stonewalling tactics.
The premise: This administration is asking people to "trust us."
Whether you want to secure the border first and then implement a path to citizenship or legal residency, or you want to implement a path to citizenship or legal residency for the millions living here now and work towards securing the border after, you’re asking the other side to trust that the second part will get done.
It’s already difficult to convince skeptics to go with proposals where a future promise is half the deal, but the administration hasn’t made their own task any easier. Instead they’ve hurt it through the Affordable Care Act.
The administration has shown that it doesn’t intend to carry out a law but is comfortable altering it with sudden executive orders and administrative actions. It has delayed provisions of the law it once supported. So why should skeptics of immigration reform trust that this administration will secure the border at a later date?