At its heart what were the basic public policy issues Obama faced in regard to the matter of deporting illegal aliens?
With the message from the President of the United States from November 2014, the administration with Obama in head of it, wanted to work on the immigration system of the country and wanted to fix the emerged issues, because the number of illegal immigrants on the territory of USA is quite big. Pew Research Center reports that in the year 2014 the number of aliens who stay on the territory of the United States on illegal basis is 11.3 million. This number is huge, and from the first perspective, the situation seems to be extremely unorganized, because the country lets so many illegal immigrants to be in the country. However, it is important to remember that unauthorized immigrants constitute around 5.1% of labor force in the United States. For example, in the year 2012, the number of illegal aliens who represented a part of the labor force of the country constituted more than 8 million (Krogstad & Passel, 2015).
Consequently, we can say that the problem of illegal immigration is very serious in the country, and there is a need for government administration to resolve this issue. Obama policy of November 2014 targets directly this issue, because it wants to offer the rights for the individuals, so that they can have an access to the necessary things, such as acquiring work permits, medical insurance or the possibility to get well-paid jobs.
What specifically is the content of his decision?
The decision included three major fields that concern immigration issues: (1) unlawfully present population; (2) border security: (3) future legal immigration (Manuel, 2014).
The main essence of the policy is to work on the problem of immigrants within the country and to give an opportunity for the illegal immigrant to receive valid documents and to become a legal part of the American society. There are, without any doubt, limitations for the aliens, because it will not be possible to legalize everyone. In such a way, the policy states that people, who have entered the territory of the United States before or on June 15, 2007, or those who are over 31 years old and have entered the country in the period from June 15, 2007 until June 1, 2010, should get a possibility to receive deferred action (Manuel, 2014).
In addition, the initiative concerns people, who have children who were born on the territory of the US, and, consequently, are American citizens, so that parents can live lawfully with their children on the legal basis (Manuel, 2014). The initiative of the year 2014 concerning immigration issues within the country aims to have positive implication for the society and for those who already have stable lives in the country, but do not have an ability to become legal.
What rationale did Obama use to justify his decision?
Obama is not the one who can rewrite the laws through the series of executive actions. There is a serious problem of legal immigrants on the territory of the United States, and, what is more, the resources for the deportation of those aliens are substantially limited. In such a way, with more than 11 million unlawful habitants, the Department of Homeland Security has resources for the deportation of only around 400 000 every year, which is a very small portion of the total number. Consequently, there is a need for a decision about who should stay in the country, in other words, whom the administration should ignore, and who should go under certain measures and leave USA (Carroll, 2014).
There is another important point: Obama has “prosecutorial discretion” power, which lets him to make this decision, and, in fact, he could grant the possibility of legalization for all of the immigrants. However, there is still a requirement to deport 400 000 illegal immigrants annually, and there will be no way to implement the program for everyone. In addition, a thin wall between president’s decision and actual actions can lead to the law legalization, and there are many obstacles for the real measures (Carroll, 2014).
What were the principal points made by opponents of this decision?
Obama’s decision about the initiative for the illegal immigrants on the territory of the United States faced many opponents. In fact, around 48% opposed this decision, which is a significant portion. The major proclamation that the majority of the opposite sector to Obama’s November 2014 announcement made was: “The president’s actions were illegal, unlawful, even unconstitutional. The president was “provoking a constitutional crisis” (Elving, 2014).
The main principal point of the opponents was not about the nature of the program itself, but more about the process, by which the president made this decision and announced it. Moreover, some claimed that this decision could become one of the critical problems, for which the House can sue the president. The initiative turned out to raise many problems within the political system of the country and led to the situation, in which several parties cannot find common ground and come up with one decision that will eliminate the risks, will help to solve the problem and will comply with all the laws and regulation of the Constitution.
Obama made his decision at the time when the Republicans would gain majorities in both the House and Senate. How could the timing of his decision be viewed as politically rooted?
Republicans did not meet Obama’s decision about a new policy that strives to fix the immigration system of the country with open hands. The thing is that even before Obama announced his decision, there were serious controversies and the Republicans stated that the Congress would take actions in order to prevent the President from such actions. Moreover, it is important to mention that the major point that made Republicans angry about the problem is not that much the essence of the initiative, but the way the President decided to announce it. He did it all by himself, not waiting for Republicans, who were elected, to receive their power and not waiting for the justification from Congress (Elving, 2014).
Therefore, we can see that Obama’s speech about his decision on immigration issues came out, when Republican still did not get their powers, but were about to. It is hard to judge whether the timing of President’s decision was accurately organized. However, from the perspective that this initiative faces so many discontents in the Congress and, specifically, in the Republicans, implies that the time, when Obama announced the news about the program, was chosen carefully, not to let the power that Republicans would get in the House and Senate to go across this policy and across President’s decision.
Identify three ways this issue might be resolved in the long run.
Obama’s November 2014 announcement about providing certain freedoms to the part of illegal aliens and about working on the problem of the broken immigration system raised numerous arguments in the House and Senate, and in other political bodies. One of the ways to resolve this problem is for Obama to discuss everything with the Congress and to try to reach common ground on this issue.
The second way of finding a consensus and working together on the immigration system is to allocate more resources on the process of dealing with illegal aliens, so that the country can work harder on this issue and avoid potential problems that can arise from granting permits to one part of immigrants, and not doing this for others.
The third alternative to resolve the arguments about Obama’s immigration announcement is to fulfill the promises that go along with the speech, such as conducting background checks, tax payments, and registration. Those measures will give necessary responsibilities to the illegal immigrants and will lower discontents in the part of the opponents.
Overall, the government should work together on such problems in the long run, and it should discuss and come up with one decision before making announcements.
References
Carroll, C. (2014, November 21). Everything You Need To Know About Obama's Executive Amnesty. Retrieved April 07, 2016, from http://beta.townhall.com/tipsheet/conncarroll/2014/11/21/everything-you-need-to-know-about-obamas-executive-amnesty-n1922199
Elving, R. (2014, November 21). Who's Dreaming Now? Obama Opponents Do A Weapons Check On Immigration. Retrieved April 07, 2016, from http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2014/11/21/365555016/whos-dreaming-now-obama-opponents-do-a-weapons-check-on-immigration
Krogstad, J. M., & Passel, J. S. (2015, November 19). 5 facts about illegal immigration in the U.S. Retrieved April 05, 2016, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/11/19/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/
Manuel, K. M. (2014, November 24). The Obama Administration’s November 2014 Immigration Initiatives: Questions and Answers. Retrieved April 05, 2016, from https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/R43798.pdf
