Above the Law: Obama Enacts Amnesty

Though he claimed it to be anything but, President Obama has followed through on his promise to enact amnesty at the executive level. In a brief speech to the American people, he used every political trick in the book to make it seem as though it was the only choice available. And while I take no issue with a president’s role as leader, I take exceptional issue to the dramatic expansion of presidential power.

In a speech that followed the president’s actions, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, himself a 2016 hopeful, had this to say:

President Obama is not above the law and has no right to issue Executive Amnesty. His actions blatantly ignore the Separations of Powers and the principles our country was founded on. The President has said 22 times previously that he does not have the power to legislate on immigration.

He isn’t alone by any means Nearly every Republican with any national standing has denounced Obama’s actions in the harshest possible terms. Some have even gone as far as to recommend that he be impeached for having violated the laws of the United States. This is very unlikely to play out, but it goes to show the level of animosity Obama has brought on himself by flagrantly moving against Congress.

While Obama was careful to present his plan as something that would put tighter reigns on illegal immigration, few believe it will do so. In fact, it’s not a stretch to think that it might have the opposite effect. Newly legalized immigrants could easily extend the lifeboat to their relatives still living south of the border, providing them with protection until the next lawless president decides to do something similar.

It’s not just speculation; one look at history shows the ramifications of amnesty. Congress passed a “one-time” amnesty bill in 1986, and studies have since shown that it acted as a potentiator for the problem, not a solution. In 1986, there were around five million people living in the U.S. illegally. Today, there are more than eleven million aliens. How many will there be in 2024?

Perhaps none. If Democrats continue to take their marching orders from Latino special interest groups, we may do away with the concept of illegal immigration altogether. After all, if part of the logic behind Obama’s move is that “we are all created equal,” then why bother regulating immigration at all? Let’s just throw open the border and welcome everyone.

While this may sound too radical to present much of a threat, make no mistake about it: plenty of “high-thinking” liberals already advocate for open borders. Changes of this magnitude don’t happen overnight. Liberalism has won in America not by making drastic moves but by gradually presenting ideas in a step by step process. At first, people are shocked, then they are merely annoyed, then they finally come around to it. By the end, they don’t even remember that they opposed the idea to begin with. Think of any liberal ideal that has become mainstream and this is the path it followed. So it will be with illegal immigration.

Unless, of course, we start standing up against these ideas before they have a chance to infect the entire country. Then, maybe, we can hand our children a country worth living in.