President Obama's executive order on immigration won't affect Ohio as much as it will in such states as California, Texas, and New York - and other Midwestern states, including Michigan - that are home to larger numbers of undocumented immigrants.
But it will properly, if only temporarily, shield from the threat of deportation an estimated 34,000 people in our state. Many of them have lived in this country for years, holding jobs, paying taxes, raising stable families, engaging with their communities, and becoming Americans in everything but name.
The President's plan isn't ideal; his unilateral initiatives carry political, practical, and policy risks. Yet unless and until Congress fulfills the responsibility it has evaded for more than a decade and passes a comprehensive reform bill, his leadership represents the best available vehicle for starting to fix this nation's broken and unjust immigration system.
The executive action protects from deportation for three years more than 5 million unauthorized immigrants - roughly half of all those who are in this country illegally. It will enable these people to register for work permits.
Most of them are the parents of American citizens, or of legal permanent residents with green cards, and have lived here for more than five years. Others are so-called Dreamers: young people who were brought here illegally as children before 2010, are pursuing higher education or military service, and don't have criminal records (the order does not cover their parents).
Many of these immigrants will be eligible for Social Security and Medicare, but not for such federal benefits as food stamps, college financial aid, and housing subsidies. And they won't be able to buy health insurance through the federal Obamacare exchange.
Mr. Obama pledges to strengthen border enforcement and to expel illegal immigrants who pose genuine threats to this country. At the same time, he says he will not allow local police forces to conduct sweeping detention efforts that are based on the crudest racial profiling, ignore the Constitution, and often ensnare innocent people. History suggests that threading this needle won't be easy.
Ohio neighbors
About 82,000 undocumented immigrants live in Ohio, estimates the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank, based on its analysis of Census data. Nearly half of them were born in Mexico.
More than two-thirds have lived in this country for more than five years, and are 25 years old or older. Nearly two-thirds are in the work force and have family incomes that exceed the national poverty level. More than one-fourth are homeowners.
Three-fifths of them are, or have been, married. Two-fifths have pursued higher education. Two-thirds speak English fluently. More than one-third live with at least one child under the age of 18; among these children of school age, nine out of 10 are enrolled in school.
Less positively, almost three-fifths don't have health insurance. But overall, most of Ohio's 'illegals' are a lot like the rest of us. They aren't violent gangsters or terrorists or welfare-dependent freeloaders.
Still, the debate in Ohio over Mr. Obama's immigration plan has been as drearily predictable - and partisan - as in the rest of the country. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has joined other Republican state attorneys general in condemning what they call the President's disrespect for the 'rule of law.' As usual, such umbrage is selective, depending on the particular issue under debate.
House Speaker John Boehner, Ohio's gift to Capitol Hill obstructionism and dysfunction, accuses the President of 'playing with fire' in daring to act without permission from him and his Republican colleagues in Congress. For 17 months, Mr. Boehner has refused to allow a vote on a bipartisan immigration reform bill that the Senate approved and Mr. Obama supports.
The measure likely would pass the House if it were given a fair opportunity, and it deserves to become law. But the reactionary extremists who dominate the House Republican caucus, and dictate to its ostensible leader, won't permit that. It's much easier to play to the base by blaming the President, incessantly if falsely, for promoting 'amnesty.'
Kasich's wisdom
A heartening exception to this low level of discourse has come, somewhat surprisingly, from Gov. John Kasich. At a meeting this month of Republican governors - several of whom, including him, are potential GOP presidential candidates in 2016 - Mr. Kasich declared himself 'open' to the idea of a path to citizenship for people who are in this country illegally. 'We have to think about what's going to bring about healing,' he said.
In an interview with Fox News, Governor Kasich criticized the President's unilateral action, as you would expect. But he also called on congressional Republicans to support comprehensive reform. 'The Republicans have to say: 'We're not going to play politics; we'll get together with you and we'll try to figure something out',' he said.
Such remarks are likely to alienate those tinfoil-hat Republicans who have not already dismissed Mr. Kasich as presidential timber because of his sensible expansion of Ohio's Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act. But the governor's GOP colleagues - and voters, including Latinos - might want to pay attention.
The President's immigration plan isn't, and can't be, the last word on reform. An order that covers millions of people, requiring detailed new applications and legal representation, will burden the already stressed system even more.
It isn't reassuring that Mr. Obama is invoking authority that he previously said he lacked, claiming now that he is doing no more than previous presidents of both parties have done. His writ expires when he leaves office in January, 2017; what happens then? And when a future Republican president claims the same executive authority to achieve his or her goals, supporters of this order will not be able to object credibly.
In the meantime, though, the program will confer economic and law-enforcement advantages, and will relieve fears of deportation among people who have acted responsibly since they arrived. It will enable more foreign students who graduated from American colleges to apply their talents here instead of in another country.
Most of all, the plan buys time for the new, Republican-controlled Congress to show the sincerity - or the dishonesty - of its stated commitment to immigration reform, albeit on its own terms. Toxic nativist rhetoric, lawsuits, and threats of impeachment and government shutdown will accomplish nothing.
A meaningful and constructive bill, based on significant compromises by the President and lawmakers of both parties, can fix this nation's immigration mess. Mr. Obama has done what he can do, for now. It's past time for Congress to do its job.
David Kushma is editor of The Blade. Contact him at: dkushma@theblade.com or on Twitter @dkushma1
Posted by Unknown on Sunday, November 30, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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