Black Liberal Asks Why Focus on Immigration Over Employment?

Author and The Root columnist Charles D. Ellison asks, “Is executive-order toughness on immigration reform really worth shutting down our $4 trillion government again in a standoff with Republicans?”

Sure, the U.S. immigration system itself—a bit rickety under the weight of 11 million undocumented immigrants and ranked ninth (pdf) out of 30 countries by the Immigration Policy Center—could use some fixing. But what else rooted in Washington policymaking doesn’t need fixing? At the moment, there’s little need to put a chain saw to the flower bed when all you need is mulch for maintenance. So immigration reform could probably stand in line.

Yet, less than three weeks after game-rattling midterm elections, and this is what’s front and center on the White House docket? As if an immediate and rather dramatic retooling of immigration policy through executive order was what President Barack Obama picked up when he told voters and nonvoters alike: “I hear you.”

Did he really, though?

Although Ellison takes a swipe at whites who oppose immigration, calling them “xenophobic,” his overall point is worth noting. I think the executive amnesty scheme is the president’s revenge…against Republican lawmakers, against Republican voters, and against Democrat voters who didn’t show up during the midterms. It takes precedent over everything else.

I hope more Democrat-voting blacks start asking questions. Barack Obama will be gone in two years. He’s set to make a fortune on the lecture and book-writing circuit. What does he care about how amnesty and the whole illegal immigration scheme impacts law-abiding citizens of any race? He and his family are insulated from the effects.

Photo credit: “Barack Obama playing golf” by White House (Pete Souza) / Maison Blanche (Pete Souza) – The Official White House Photostream [1]. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.