GOP says Obama immigration plan is 'amnesty.' Is that accurate?

President Obama is poised to take executive action on immigration, a move many Republicans equate to granting amnesty. But nothing Mr. Obama can do will be permanent.

|
Susan Walsh/AP
President Obama speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Nov. 8. The GOP equates Mr. Obama's impending unilateral order awarding legal status to millions of immigrants to amnesty.

Does President Obama’s upcoming unilateral action on immigration constitute “amnesty"?

That’s the word Republicans opposed to the move use to describe it. Just look at Sunday’s morning news shows to see that rhetorical trope in action. Sen. Mike Lee (R) of Utah, on “Face the Nation,” said that one of the policies voters rejected in the midterm elections was “possible executive action on amnesty.” Over at “Meet the Press,” Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) of Louisiana said “it’s not going to be popular to grant amnesty to millions of folks ... that are here illegally.”

“Amnesty” is a powerful word, of course, which is why the GOP uses it as a talking point. It connotes forgiveness for a past transgression. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines it as “a general pardon granted by a government, especially for political offenses.”

We don’t yet know the details of Mr. Obama’s action, so we can’t say for sure whether it would fit this definition. Preliminary indications are that the White House will defer the deportation of people in the country illegally whose children are American citizens or have permanent residence green cards. That could affect some 3.3 million undocumented immigrants, according to some estimates.

These people would receive work permits and Social Security numbers and could travel freely within the US without worry that they will be seized by law enforcement and kicked out. That sure seems to fit one aspect of the word “pardon,” since they broke the law by sneaking into the US in the first place.

In that sense, “amnesty” might be accurate.

But in another sense it isn’t. Obama’s action would be temporary, according to numerous reports about his impending order. He cannot grant illegal immigrants permanent citizenship or green cards. He can only use his law enforcement discretion to promise to defer prosecution for their status.

So if “amnesty” means lasting forgiveness, it doesn’t fit. A future president could undo Obama’s move with a stroke of a pen. Congress could pass legislation that would negate it – though a president would have to sign the bill if it were to become law.

The time-limited nature of Obama’s upcoming immigration move isn’t getting a lot of attention, notes Josh Voorhees at Slate. Both sides have an incentive to try and make the action seem more world-historical than it actually is.

“As the Washington hype machine kicks into high gear over the next several weeks, keep in mind that the bulk of Obama’s moves will not be permanent ones. Real, lasting change to our immigration policy can come only from Congress,” Mr. Voorhees writes.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to GOP says Obama immigration plan is 'amnesty.' Is that accurate?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/Decoder/2014/1117/GOP-says-Obama-immigration-plan-is-amnesty.-Is-that-accurate
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe