Obama and His Stealth Amnesty

by Joe Guzzardi
April 4, 2011

Trying to keep up with President Barack Obama’s illegal immigration advocacy is dizzying. In the latest incomprehensible Capitol Hill action, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made a highly visible, public announcement that she will not carry out her sworn oath of office to deport illegal immigrants if they are “students.” Speaking at NDN (the New Democrat Network), a self described ultra-liberal Washington D.C.-based think tank, Napolitano said that students and “young adults” who would have been granted amnesty had last year’s DREAM Act passed are not a “priority.

Napolitano: “I will say, and can say, that you know what? They are not, that group, if they truly meet all those criteria, and we see very few of them actually in the immigration system, if they truly meet those [criteria], they’re not the priority.”

On its face, you might think Napolitano delivered good news. DHS, she suggests, vows to concentrate on violent offenders and leave diligent kids alone so they can pursue their studies without fear of deportation. After all, Obama is on record that he wants illegal immigrant students “to succeed,” obviously unconcerned about what their eventual impact in the work force may be on Americans.

The first problem with spinning Napolitano’s statement optimistically is that DHS is ineffective at rounding up criminal aliens. Approximately 100,000 are at large including some of the most heinous murderers, rapists, drug dealers and gang members. In fact, DHS has a poor record on any kind of immigration enforcement. Workplace compliance is selective, occurring just often enough to make a splash in the press as was the case with the Chipotle Mexican Grill arrests. Thousands of other violations are ignored. Furthermore, non-immigrant visa holders routinely overstay their designated time frames without consequences.

Second, the categories that Napolitano pledges to leave out of any deportation round ups, in the unlikely event they occur, are too broadly defined. Used loosely, “students” could include part-time evening adult education enrollments and trade school attendees. Who knows how DHS would classify “young adult”? In one early DREAM Act version, the legislation included everyone up to 35.

Third, last month we learned that the White House supports Utah’s H.R. 116 which would allow the state to welcome unlimited numbers of illegal alien workers (and their families) in an obvious effort to defy federal authority on immigration law. Instead of defending the Constitution, the Obama administration held back room meetings in Washington D.C. with the Utah attorney general Mark Shurtleff to plot a way to circumvent federal law. Obama’s recent action on Utah’s behalf starkly contrasts with how he proceeded in Arizona when his administration immediately sued that state over S.B. 1070. What’s overlooked in Obama’s ongoing commitment to illegal immigration is the Executive Branch’s sworn obligation to uphold Congressional laws, whether the president agrees with them or not.

Most mystifying is why Obama takes dead end positions on the DREAM Act, defeated for ten straight years, or on Utah. Political expediency dictates a low profile. By repeatedly demonstrating that he’s disinterested in immigration law enforcement, Obama enrages Republicans and alienates moderate Democrats and Independents, many of whom voted for him in 2008 and most of which he’ll need in 2012. Among liberals, Obama gains nothing. Since he hasn’t delivered on his long promised comprehensive immigration reform package, Napolitano’s public relations speech declaring hands off on illegal “young adults” doesn’t impress his base.

After the DREAM Act died in last year’s Congressional lame duck session, Obama should have heeded Hamlet: “the rest is silence.”

Joe Guzzardi has written editorial columns—mostly about immigration and related social issues – since 1990. He is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) and his columns have frequently been syndicated in various U.S. newspapers and websites. He can be reached at [email protected].