Obama's Immigration Action: The right ends but the wrong means

I watched President Obama's immigration speech today and found myself in almost 100% agreement with the ends that he wants to achieve.  We do need to normalize what has become a black labor market.  It hurts our society to have millions of people living in the shadows.  We do benefit from the enthusiasm of energetic immigrants.  We have to accept that the border failures of the past are water over the bridge and that we are never going to deport 10 million illegal immigrants. The President's goal to end the shadow labor economy is justifiable and honorable.

But the ends do not always justify the means.  President Obama's action creates a new precedent that the executive branch can write law unilaterally.  He violates the separation of powers.  He damages the Constitution.  The Constitution is the instrument that made the United States the kind of place that immigrants would want to come to.  Thus, the President achieves certain "ends" at very high cost.  Very few circumstances justify undermining our Constitution.  It is a sad day when our president breaks the oath he took to defend the Constitution of the United States by defying the very law it sets forth.  The President's plan is to create his own path to normalization. It would create precedents that Congress would have to deal with.  He is increasing the emphasis on "anchor babies" as the way to get into the U.S.  He is choosing who gets lenient treatment and how. This is the purview of Congress, not the President.

The president is also not being forthright about the legitimate concerns that have prevented bipartisan legislation from being passed during his term.  They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.  If we do nothing substantive about how we patrol our borders, we'll just have another 10 million illegal immigrants 5 years from now.  We need major border security initiatives to accompany major changes in legal status.   As Charles Krauthammer said, Americans want to embrace hard-working illegal immigrants--as long as we know that "this is the last cohort" who will come in illegally.

A nation without borders is not a nation.  When Rome ceased to defend its borders, it fell.  When the native Americans allowed Europeans to overrun them, their nations were marginalized.  Borders matter.  Period.

I know it is hard to believe, but bipartisan solutions do in fact exist.  They take time, energy, and humility.  Humility is not an attribute I have seen in President Obama.  We need leadership, not gamesmanship.  And whatever we do, The Constitution DOES matter.