Immigration Lies: The President In His Own Words

A scorned president has cauterized the simmering debate over immigration reform with an inflammatory speech followed by a ham-fisted executive fiat.  His words and his unilateral action have doomed any chances of forging a national consensus on this tumultuous issue.

In the wake of the impetuous president's decision, polls revealed a divided country over Obama's amnesty order.  By a 50-40 split, voters disapproved of the president's scheme, according to research released last week by Democratic polling firm Rasmussen Reports.

This immigration schism can only be bridged by compromise.  But this president has chosen contention over concession.  He is driven by revenge for the humiliation he suffered in the mid-terms.  His executive action was an opportunity to poke his finger in the eyes of incensed Republicans.

As the days have passed since his televised address, even ardent supporters of immigration reform are realizing the president's course offers only a temporary fix.  If his motivation was to goad Congress into enacting permanent legislation, he has seriously miscalculated the political ramifications.

But this president has always shunned the high road.  He prefers the rough politics of Chicago ward bosses where no opponent goes unpunished.  A re-reading of the transcript of his speech reveals a man willing to engage in disinformation and incendiary language to justify his action.

His address was aimed at branding Americans who believe in the rule of law as uncaring and heartless people.  In the president's own words, read his attempts at verbal manipulation:

"But today, our immigration system is broken and everyone knows it." This distortion has been repeated so many times, no one questions its veracity.  While some changes may be needed in the immigration process, the current system accommodated the largest influx of legal immigrants in the nation's history.  From 2005 to 2013, a total of 9,787,594 immigrants have obtained permanent residency status in the U.S.. according to the Department of Homeland Security.  This total represents the largest number of immigrants to gain residency in any nine-year period in American history.  America does not have a legal immigration problem, it has an illegal alien issue.

"Mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character."  Not a single politician in either party has advocated deportation of the more than 11 million illegal aliens living in the U.S.  Yet the president continues to use his fabrication to scare immigrants into thinking they will be shipped home in shackles if the Republicans have their way.  Only Obama can save them from this fate.

"If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up." Figures from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show that deportations declined 19 percent from 2011 to 2012 and dropped another 22 percent last year. Despite these numbers, the Obama Administration has devised a clever method to calculate deportations that inflates the actual statistics.  Even the egregious number-rigging cannot hide the fact the administration freed 36,007 illegal aliens convicted of 88,000 crimes last year, ICE figures confirm.  This administration's has the worst record in history in dealing with illegal immigrants, including those with criminal records.

"Are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents arms?"  Please Mr. President, name one example.  No children are being snatched from their parents and exported back home.  In fact, at the end of last year there were 1.8 million illegal immigrants awaiting deportation, ICE figures show.  Illegal aliens play a waiting game that often ends with them ducking hearings while remaining in the U.S.

"I know some of the critics call it amnesty.  Well, its not." His order defers deportation of illegals, while allowing them to obtain permanent residency.  It is amnesty because despite entering the country illegally, the government is willing to spare aliens deportation and will not prosecute them for violating the laws of the country. That is amnesty under any name.

"The actions I'm taking are not only lawful, they're the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican President and every single Democratic president for the past half-century."  To make their point, the president and the obsequious media have drawn comparisons to President Reagan's executive action on immigration. However, it is a duplicitous analogy.  In 1986, Congress approved the Immigration Reform and Control Act that provided a path to legalization for millions of illegal aliens.  After the measure was passed and signed into law by President Reagan, he issued an executive order stalling deportation of non-citizens in more than 100,000 families not covered under the legislation.  Unlike Obama, Reagan acted after the legislative branch had approved a law. Obama chose to sidestep Congress and take unilateral action.

Neither comparisons to past presidents nor provocative rhetoric offer rationalization for President Obama's perversive abuse of executive power.  He has acted wantonly without fear of retribution from the courts, the media, the Congress or the American people.

Unilateral action has become his modus operandi and it is undermining the constitutional powers of the legislative branch. Unless the next Congress halts this erosion, the coming two years will see runaway growth of executive power under a president who thumbs his nose at the Constitution.