Obama to announce go-it-alone plan on immigration Thursday

[Valin]

Reuters:

Steve Holland and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON Wed Nov 19, 2014

 

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama will outline a plan on Thursday to relax U.S. immigration policy and grant relief from deportation to as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants in a go-it-alone move that will deepen a partisan divide with Republicans.

 

The White House said Obama will deliver a televised speech on Thursday night laying out the plan followed by a trip to Las Vegas on Friday to build support. Nevada is home to the highest proportion of undocumented immigrants in the country.

 

Frustrated by years of congressional inaction on what most in Washington agree is a broken immigration system, Obama said in a web video posting that he is now prepared to act unilaterally.

 

(Snip)

 

http://youtu.be/NStm6kfFM8o

[Valin]

Why Thursday?
Rich Lowry
November 19, 2014 1:50 PM

 

It would seem a political imperative for the president at the moment would be to avoid doing anything to undercut Republican appropriators who want to pass a year-long funding bill, and therefore to throw away any chance to fight an executive amnesty through a funding measure. Why wouldn’t Obama wait until next year in the hope that Republicans can’t get their act together?

 

Joel has more on the fight between appropriators and the Right on the homepage here.

 

[Valin]

SIGH

The New Yorker: G.O.P. Unveils Immigration Plan: “We Must Make America Somewhere No One Wants to Live”
Andy Borowitz
Nov. 19 2014

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled his party’s long-awaited plan on immigration on Wednesday, telling reporters, “We must make America somewhere no one wants to live.”

Appearing with House Speaker John Boehner, McConnell said that, in contrast to President Obama’s “Band-Aid fixes,” the Republican plan would address “the root cause of immigration, which is that the United States is, for the most part, habitable.”

“For years, immigrants have looked to America as a place where their standard of living was bound to improve,” McConnell said. “We’re going to change that.”

Boehner said that the Republicans’ plan would reduce or eliminate “immigration magnets,” such as the social safety net, public education, clean air, and drinkable water.

The Speaker added that the plan would also include the repeal of Obamacare, calling healthcare “catnip for immigrants.”

(Snip)

 

[Valin]

NBC poll: Executive amnesty is… pretty unpopular with just about everybody
Noah Rothman
November 19, 2014

On Monday, USA Today released a poll that might have buoyed the spirits of those who support President Barack Obama’s planned executive order which will enact portions of the Senate’s failed immigration reform bill. That survey found that an executive order was only slightly unpopular, with 46 percent disapproving and 42 percent approving.

 

Today, it seems that poll may have given Democrats false hope. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released on Wednesday revealed that an immigration executive order from Obama would not be that popular at all, even with the demographics the president surely hoped to please.

 

NBC/WSJ found that only 38 percent of the public are happy with the president’s planned immigration order, while a full 48 percent disapprove. 11 percent of Republicans approve of the move and 37 percent of self-described independents agree. Shockingly, only 63 percent of Democrats in that survey expressed support for an executive order.

Even more surprisingly, that poll found that immigration reform via executive order is not especially popular with even Hispanic voters......(Snip)