"Everything" You Need To Know About Tonight's Executive Action

Obstructionists Hoist On Their Own Petard

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Executive Action On Immigration. Shields And Dionne Describe GOP Obstruction

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/11/executive-action-on-immigration-shields.html

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In a prime-time speech Thursday night, President Obama will announce a major executive action deferring deportations for some 4 million undocumented immigrants. You'll find everything you need to know here and on Wonkblog

Obama's order would offer a temporary legal status to the undocumented parents of children who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, where the immediate threat of deportation would be removed. The order would require the parents to have lived in the U.S. for a set period of years - probably five. David Nakamura and Pamela Constable in The Washington Post.

Millions of these undocumented immigrants could apply for work permits.

The president will expand the 2012 program that deferred deportations of nearly 600,000 younger immigrants arrived in the U.S. as illegal immigrants as children. Obama could raise (or eliminate) the maximum eligibility age, currently set at 30, and could raise the maximum arrival age above 16.

Disappointing immigrant advocates, however, the executive action does not appear to extend protections to hundreds of thousands of parents of these "dreamers." Julia Preston in The New York Times.

Obama also expand visas for high-tech workers; change detention procedures; and strengthen border security.

There is a precedent set by Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. In 1987 and 1989, with an immigration bill stalled in Congress as it is now, the two presidents issued orders deferring deportations for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants. The orders weren't controversial at the time, but the political environment has changed since then. Andrew Taylor for the Associated Press.

SARGENT: The law clearly gives Obama the authority to delay deportations. Conservative critics have tried to make the dispute a question of the executive branch's constitutional authority. In fact, the text of the immigration statute is clear. Congress has already explicitly given Obama everything he needs to act. What's more, an order will probably not affect the total number of undocumented immigrants deported every year, which will remain small in any case. The Washington Post.

DOUTHAT: The president's logic makes sense, but what are the consequences? "The White House's case is straightforward: It has 'prosecutorial discretion' in which illegal immigrants it deports, it has precedent-grounded power to protect particular groups from deportation, and it has statutory authority to grant work permits to those protected." But these arguments could be applied in plenty of other contexts, too, creating "a model for a future president interested in unilateral rewrites of other areas of public policy (the tax code, for instance) where sweeping applications of 'discretion' could achieve partisan victories by fiat." The New York Times.

BROOKS: The order sends the country down a dangerous path. "Instead of a nation of laws, we could slowly devolve into a nation of diktats, with each president relying on and revoking different measures on the basis of unilateral power — creating unstable swings from one presidency to the next. If President Obama enacts this order on the transparently flimsy basis of 'prosecutorial discretion,' he's inviting future presidents to use similarly flimsy criteria." The New York Times.

BEUTLER: This line of reasoning is not that the order is illegal, but that it violates important political norms. That's a nebulous argument, and it's hard to see exactly which norms are being violated, unless there's one that says that the most conservative members of the House G.O.P. caucus should always be listened to carefully. Just because "right-wingers are blind with rage" doesn't make the order illegal. The New Republic.

The order does not mean that undocumented immigrants get Obamacare. "The White House decision to deny health benefits also underscores how far the president’s expected actions will fall short of providing the kind of full membership in American society that activists have spent decades fighting for. The immigrants covered by Mr. Obama’s actions are also unlikely to receive public benefits like food stamps, Medicaid coverage or other need-based federal programs offered to citizens and some legal residents."Michael Shear and Robert Pear in The New York Times.

In some cases, the federal government does pay for their health care already. Hospitals provide emergency and maternity care to undocumented immigrants, at a cost of around $1.3 billion annually to the federal government and more to state governments. Undocumented immigrants are able to get health insurance through an employer or individually, although they won't qualify for subsidies. Jason Millman and Juliet Eilperin in The Washington Post.

Silicon Valley won't be entirely satisfied with the order. Obama's order will expand a program for foreign students in science and engineering that allows them to work here temporarily, but the technology sector would prefer more H-1B visas. Mike Dorning for Bloomberg.

Governors will have to make decisions about driver's licenses, in-state tuition and more.Republicans measuring the drapes in governors' mansions around the country after their sweep in the midterms have politically sensitive choices ahead. Michael Barbaro in The New York Times.

It's about time Obama did something.  "Years were wasted, and countless families broken, while Mr. Obama clung to a futile strategy of luring Republicans toward a legislative deal. He has been his own worst enemy — over the years he stressed his executive impotence, telling advocates that he could not change the system on his own. This may have suited his legislative strategy, but it was not true." The New York Times.

WILKINSON: The order is a risky move. "Yes, any executive action would be temporary. Yes, Congress could pass legislation to supersede it. But this could prove to be a turning point in the partisan polarization of Washington. Having reshaped itself in Newt Gingrich's image, the Republican Party has proved increasingly willing to undermine democratic norms -- and institutions -- in hopes of inheriting the rubble. If Obama is not departing from norms in this case, he certainly looks to be pushing the line." Bloomberg.