Yesterday was the first day of President Obama’s immigration ploy known as deferred action. The executive order allows illegal-alien children brought to the country by their parents to apply for “deferred action” from deportation as well as a two-year work permit. It is also a nakedly cynical attempt by the Obama administration to boost support for the incumbent’s reelection bid among certain voters.
Indeed, no one is denying this fact.
As one illegal immigrant admitted to NPR, yes Obama had done this for political reasons.
So will it work?
When Obama announced the plan back in June, he declared that children of illegal immigrants “study in our schools, play in our neighborhoods, befriend our kids, pledge allegiance to our flag. It makes no sense to expel talented young people who are, for all intents and purposes, Americans.”
For six months?
After all, that’s as long as the program lasts, until Feb. 28, 2013.
But the most important items Obama left off his list of things children of illegal immigrants do is work and that is really the prism through which the deferred action order should be viewed.
When polled about their general concerns, most Latinos put jobs and the economy at the top of the list. Immigration comes later. But this is a real life example of a substantive chance in immigration policy which could allow more than a million illegal immigrants to stay and legally work in the US.
Does that matter more to Latino voters than jobs? If so, cynical or not, Obama’s ploy will work and the Latino vote will go much more to Obama than to Romney.
On the other hand, the unemployment rate among Latinos is 14 percent.