Obamnesty: Wrong Idea, Wrong Implementation

First, Washington Post syndicated columnist George Will offered the following about Obama's executive amnesty, otherwise known as "Obamnesty":

George Will

The policies are defensible, the process is execrable.

President Obama wants to extend citizenship to illegal immigrants, individuals who broke the law entering the country, while ignoring the integrity and effort of millions of legal residents who played by the rules? No, such a move is indefensible, but the process of ignoring Congress and discriminating federal law is execrable. In prior episodes of Fox News Sunday, Will characterized the thousands of illegal immigrant minors as benign migrants with teddy bears. Why he defies recognizing the long-term consequences of unprotected borders and unenforced federal statutes remains disconcerting. Still, he offered an opinion, one which reflects poor fundamental principles.

Tom Rogan

Then National Review Editor Tom Rogan contributed on the McLaughlin Group the following:

It's executive overreach to a huge degree. Whether the President's policy is right, it's not right in procedure. I think it's a great disservice, not just to the executive branch and the Presidency, and this president himself, but also to the notion of American law. We have to remember, this is a Harvard Law graduate who has done this in such a disdainful way. It has poisoned the well, and that is a deep shame.

President Obama has extended executive amnesty not just to a significant cohort of young illegal immigrants, brought to this country by their parents, but he has also extended provisional permission (with permits) to the illegal parents, as well as the illegal parents whose children are living here legally.

He has no authority to do this.

Where one can take greater offense, however, is that the very idea of extending permits, green cards, and Social Security cards to illegal immigrants is a good idea.

No, the proper course would begin with securing the border. Security does not require a fence, but the requisite number of troops and resources, along with buildings to house then remove illegal immigrants. Pat Buchanan made a point about the frustration not just of conservatives, but with Middle America because their own President will not enforce the laws on the books, and secure the border. This executive fiat moves Middle America from frustration to outrage. Three of the panelists, including the more liberal Mort Zuckerman concluded that this executive measures is a big mistake which will hurt President Obama and the Democratic Party in the future.

The McLaughlin assessment is sound and certain. When the President defies popular opinion on reasonable policies, like border security and energy expansion, he has done himself and his party a grave disservice. While the discussion on the McLaughlin group submitted that this measure will divide the Republican Party, the manifest displeasure of this measure will more likely unify their cause. Even the Chamber of Commerce branch of the GOP would rather see the President marginalized, even though they pursued a similar outcome for cheap labor.

Obamnesty is a bad idea, and no implementation could justify it, or make it any worse.