If anything President Obama's decision to invoke executive authority to reform immigration rather than wait for Congress – six years of frustration so far – has provoked more outrage than the substance of the decision itself. Only days after Republicans won a Senate majority, the bypassing of legislators is being portrayed as a snub to democracy, one that will allegedly imperil future collaboration. Obama's reply on Thursday to "outraged" Republicans was understandable and justified – "Pass a Bill," he said simply.
By far the greater "offence", as he has now acknowledged, is that inflicted on the lives of those who live day to day in fear of police raids or spot checks, in the twilight world of the undocumented, cheap labour for unscrupulous employers, unable to leave the country, with the ever-present threat of deportation hanging over. "You can come out of the shadows,'' Obama told them.
His decision will allow about five million “illegals” to become eligible for a new legal status that would defer their deportations and allow them to work if they have been in the US for five years, have US-citizen children, pass background checks and pay taxes. About half of those affected are Mexican – how many are Irish is not known, but must run to tens of thousands.
Although broader in scope, Obama’s actions are in principle no different to similar ones taken by Presidents Reagan, Bush I and II, and Clinton, who all unilaterally granted immunity from deportation to various groups, citing the government’s “prosecutorial discretion” over enforcing immigration laws. The measures do not – Obama can not legally – offer the “path to citizenship” sought by immigration activists and supported by a majority in recent polls, but do respond not only to popular demand but pressing demands from the business community to regularise the positions of badly-needed workers.
Obama has not gone as far as desirable on citizenship or those without children, and the ruling needs to be renewed in three years time – who will be in the White House then, God knows. But it is an important and generous first step.