By: Daniel Nardini
There are a lot of people who are unhappy that U.S. President Barack Obama was reelected. One organization, the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform (FAIR), is truly unhappy that Obama was reelected. Strangely enough, the people at FAIR believe that Obama has been too “lenient” on the undocumented. Never mind the fact that Obama has had more undocumented arrested and deported than did former U.S. President George W. Bush. Never mind the fact that Obama has actually expanded the size and power of the U.S. Border Patrol and had continued construction of the double-fenced wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. In the view of FAIR, Obama had given “amnesty” to “millions” of “illegals.” Just what constitutes amnesty is a questionable point. And who these “millions” are is just as questionable.
What really bothers about the people at FAIR is that they say Obama is exercising “dictatorial powers” by using executive orders to try and reform the immigration system (or as they say, to “undermine it”). According to FAIR, only the U.S. Congress can truly reform the immigration system. That is true. However, the Congress, still largely dominated by anti-immigration Republicans in the U.S. Senate and especially in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been less than willing to work on even passing a fiscal budget much less doing anything about immigration reform. What Obama has been trying to do is tamper a bit with using his executive authority to try and change a few things here and there of the immigration system. These things are only temporary changes, but they are better than none at all. And contrary to what FAIR says, Obama does have the authority under the U.S. Constitution to do these things. But because he is trying to do immigration reform that FAIR does not like, he is therefore being dubbed a “dictator.”
Yes, FAIR is beginning to call Obama a dictator in everything but name because they say he is either using his executive orders too much for immigration reform or he is “undermining immigration law enforcement altogether.” This last part is simply not true. Obama has actually virtually double-taxed or audited companies that have undocumented workers. Obama has had undocumented deported even when they had no criminal record. And Obama has tightened the visa requirements for companies trying to get foreign labor into this country so thoroughly that many companies and even farmers have had serious trouble trying to fulfill the requirements to get their foreign hired help into the country. And the one thing that Obama did which FAIR objects to is the change in the law to allow hundreds of thousands of undocumented students to go on to college if they have good grades in high school and have proven their academic worth. They will be allowed to stay in the country only if they fall into this category. This does nothing for other undocumented children in other categories.
Obama simply wants to protect those high academic undocumented students who may prove to be an asset in America’s future. But even this is too much for FAIR, and they simply do not like this or any attempt at reform of the immigration system. They have no problem at kicking out millions of people (in this case all those from Mexico and Latin America), and making this country all the more poorer for it. They want an immigration system so restrictive that America will be anything except the land of opportunity. Because Obama is trying to carry out immigration reform (although truly not much), he is being condemned as a “dictator.” It says more about the minds of the people at FAIR than anything else.
Making a Dictator Out of a President
By: Daniel Nardini
What really bothers about the people at FAIR is that they say Obama is exercising “dictatorial powers” by using executive orders to try and reform the immigration system (or as they say, to “undermine it”). According to FAIR, only the U.S. Congress can truly reform the immigration system. That is true. However, the Congress, still largely dominated by anti-immigration Republicans in the U.S. Senate and especially in the U.S. House of Representatives, has been less than willing to work on even passing a fiscal budget much less doing anything about immigration reform. What Obama has been trying to do is tamper a bit with using his executive authority to try and change a few things here and there of the immigration system. These things are only temporary changes, but they are better than none at all. And contrary to what FAIR says, Obama does have the authority under the U.S. Constitution to do these things. But because he is trying to do immigration reform that FAIR does not like, he is therefore being dubbed a “dictator.”
Yes, FAIR is beginning to call Obama a dictator in everything but name because they say he is either using his executive orders too much for immigration reform or he is “undermining immigration law enforcement altogether.” This last part is simply not true. Obama has actually virtually double-taxed or audited companies that have undocumented workers. Obama has had undocumented deported even when they had no criminal record. And Obama has tightened the visa requirements for companies trying to get foreign labor into this country so thoroughly that many companies and even farmers have had serious trouble trying to fulfill the requirements to get their foreign hired help into the country. And the one thing that Obama did which FAIR objects to is the change in the law to allow hundreds of thousands of undocumented students to go on to college if they have good grades in high school and have proven their academic worth. They will be allowed to stay in the country only if they fall into this category. This does nothing for other undocumented children in other categories.
Obama simply wants to protect those high academic undocumented students who may prove to be an asset in America’s future. But even this is too much for FAIR, and they simply do not like this or any attempt at reform of the immigration system. They have no problem at kicking out millions of people (in this case all those from Mexico and Latin America), and making this country all the more poorer for it. They want an immigration system so restrictive that America will be anything except the land of opportunity. Because Obama is trying to carry out immigration reform (although truly not much), he is being condemned as a “dictator.” It says more about the minds of the people at FAIR than anything else.