At its heart, what were the basic public policy issues Obama faced in regard to the matter of deporting illegal aliens?
The illegal stay of immigrants in the US has been an issue of controversy for much of the 21 st century. The public and political spheres have come up in arms seeking to institute measures that would result in the deportation of numerous illegal residents in the country. The Obama administration faced basic public policy issues in the matter. On the one hand, the President sought to pass laws through the Congress that would ensure the protection of the illegal aliens (Ting, 2014). The DREAM Act had it been enacted by the Congress would protect the illegal immigrants in the country by bestowing them with lawful resident status. However, this was only possible if the individual in question had arrived in the country as a minor. This bill failed in the 2010 Congress as it was rejected by a majority of the representatives (Ting, 2014). The president issued a statement to advocates for the immigrants stating that while he feels bad for that the law was not enacted, he could not do anything to enforce the law on his own. In this case, the Obama administration identifies the importance of following appropriate procedures in the enforcement of the law. Approximately a year after stating that he could do nothing, the Obama presidency enforced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) (Ting, 2014). The executive action intended to protect illegal aliens referred to as Dreamers a two-year deferral of any action to remove them from the country while providing them with employment authorization documents.
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What specifically is the content of his decision?
The specific content of his decision includes undertaking the procedural measures of passing a bill through the US Congress. The DREAM Act is an acronym meaning Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act. The bill has been present in the political sphere multiple times since the beginning of the 21 st Century. It was first introduced in the Senate in 2001 (Ting, 2014). Therefore, when Obama and his administration sought to develop effective measures of protecting coping with the issue of immigration, the bill would serve as an appropriate measure. The bill is well known to political figures on the different sides of the aisle hence it would take up minimal time to discuss the significant corrections that should be made before being passed. However, despite reintroducing the bill in 2009, 2010, and 2011, the Senate would reject it and it failed to be enacted (Ting, 2014). In 2012, President Barack Obama announced that certain illegal aliens would be protected from deportation if they match a certain criterion present in the DREAM Act. On August 2012, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services accepted applications of numerous undocumented immigrants under the DACA program. Thousands of people applied for the new program and many more continued until the end of his second term. Approximately 740,000 people were registered through DACA as of January 2017 (Ting, 2014).
What rationale did Obama use to justify his decision?
Former President Barrack Obama, noted the importance of adhering to the law as a measure of protecting the democratic integrity of his administration. The most basic way in which the US government establishes laws is through discussion in the House of Representatives and the Senate (Ting, 2014). The bicameral legislature is an effective measure of ensuring that laws are enacted in a way that favors the public population to whom the laws will apply. The individual members of the Congress would discuss the importance of instituting the law as a measure of protecting individuals who had not actively sought to be in the country illegally. One of the provisions of the DREAM Act was that an applicant should be between the age of 12 and 35 when the law is enacted and should not have arrived in the country before the age of 16. It is also important to note that one had to be of good moral character to qualify (Ting, 2014). Therefore, in these measures, the Obama administration noted that the undocumented immigrants were of no threat to national security hence the need to provide them with and appropriate papers that would later make them permanent residents. The DACA program which would be enforced after the failure f the bill in Congress would institute similar measures except for some few differences.
What were the principal points made by opponents of this decision?
The Obama’s executive action to enforce the DACA program has brought about significant controversy in the political sphere particularly opponents who identify the practice as a violation of executive rule. Three factors are taken into consideration in this opposition all of which undermine the enacted laws of immigration currently in place. First and foremost, the President’s action to exercise prosecutorial discretion to defer action of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is criticized as it violates 8 U.S.C. § 1225 which expressly rejects such a practice. Secondly, the Obama’s enforcement of DACA program is opposed due to his exercise of statutory parole authority (Ting, 2014). The program allows the undocumented immigrants to leave the country and return without a visa. The opponents of this action identify that granting advanced parole to deferred action beneficiaries is a direct violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1182(d)(5), which was amended in 1996 barring the use of parole in admitting aliens who have not qualified under established immigration laws (Ting, 2014). Finally, the president uses unilateral authority to exempt an unlimited number of deferred action beneficiaries from being categorized as illegal aliens primarily because of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) (Ting, 2014). In this regard, the Secretary of Homeland Security should issue employment authorization document (EADs) to these population. Opponents identified the action goes against a hundred years of case law that prevents the Executive Branch from circumventing the statutory employment-based visa system that is currently in place. It is the belief that such an action would cause an influx of skilled and unskilled labor into the labor market.
Timing of Obama’s DACA Program Decision and Political Roots
The actions of President Obama to seek the approval of the DREAM Act took place at a time when the Republican Party had control in the House and Senate. In this regard, it was difficult to enforce significant measures that favored the beliefs of the administration. The issue of immigration has been a cause for concern in the US society for nearly the entire 21 st century. It also served as a primary issue during the first three years of Obama’s presidency and the Democratic Party had made extensive efforts to ensure its passage in the House and Senate. The DREAM Act bill was proposed three times and it was effectively lost. During this process, advocates of illegal aliens pressured him to implement the law as an executive order (Bregman, 2017). However, he responded to such pressure by stating it is not true that he can enforce the law on his own. However, in June 2012, after he had already secured the Democratic nomination for presidency for a second term, he enforced the DACA program that had received extensive changes.
Identify three ways this issue might be resolved in the long run.
The issue of immigration continues to be a cause for heated debate long after the end of Obama’s administration. The succeeding President Donald Trump under the flagship of the Republican Party proposed the repeal of the DACA program and implementing mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. However, this action is not an effective measure of resolving the issue as it unfairly treats the more than 11 million undocumented aliens (Bregman, 2017). One of the effective measures that the government may institute is a bipartisan Senate group that will work towards developing a bill that serves both the concerns of the Democrats and Republican parties. This measure is currently underway and hopes to reach a solution on the DACA deal. Another effective measure to resolve the issue is implementing a better job program in the country. One of the primary concerns that have led to the opposition to illegal aliens is its possibility of increasing the number of laborers (Bregman, 2017). The job system should be an appropriate proposal that will help members of this population to receive a fair chance of getting a job and have a better life in the society. The final technique incorporates the use of various measures of DACA that prove that the population is not a threat to national security. Therefore, the measures would include E-verify that prevents those who do not meet the standards set from obtaining employment in the US.
References
Bregman, G. (2017) The Problem and Solution to Illegal Immigration in the US . Medium, Retrieved from https://medium.com/@gabriellabregman/the-problem-and-solution-to-illegal-immigration-to-the-us-d1fb083792ec
Ting, J. (2014) President Obama's "Deferred Action" Program for Illegal Aliens Is Plainly Unconstitutional . Center for Immigration Studies, Retrieved from https://cis.org/Report/President-Obamas-Deferred-Action-Program-Illegal-Aliens-Plainly-Unconstitutional#IV
