Now many people of late have been speaking of the new immigration plan that Obama has proposed, and it has quite a large number of them up in arms and furious. The plan is, according to the New York Times this:
"Up to four million undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least five years can apply for a program that protects them from deportation and allows those with no criminal record to work legally in the country".
You can read the full article here for more information.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/us/politics/obamacare-unlikely-for-undocumented-immigrants.html?_r=0
Now that we have all, or at least a part of the information, it is time to discuss. I believe that everyone would agree to the statement that immigration has been in dire need of reform for a very long time. The system that we have simply does not work. And I hesitate to say it, but on one point at least in this issue Obama is correct. He did in fact give the Republican side plenty of time to propose a plan of there own. They have had time for years to try and put something through. In fact the last time anything was done about the issue was in 1996 with the "Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, which addressed border enforcement and the use of social programs by immigrants.
"
http://www.history.com/topics/us-immigration-since-1965 (Check out this website for more information on the history of immigration throughout the years.)
The second plan of note was proposed in 2007 by President Bush, The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007. The plan was never even voted on.
The sheer lack of any kind of movement in this area speaks to the sincerity of those advocating the cause, and those who have claimed that they do in fact care about it. If the Republican party had in fact grasped the chance to take the matter into their own hands in the last couple of years, or *gasp* tried to work with the democratic party in finding a solution that perhaps finds a way for both parties to be happy with an immigration bill, then President Obama may not have felt like he needed to act with such authority.
This brings me to another point. Several of the founding fathers say in their writings that the last thing they want for their new republic is a two party system like that of England. They have discovered that it in fact causes more problems than it answers. George Washington himself warned that:
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention, which in different ages & countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders & miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security & repose in the absolute power of an Individual: and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty." (http://www.thirty-thousand.org/pages/Baneful_Parties.htm)
From an observers point of view it seems that Washington was right. Especially in this situation it can be seen very clearly that party lines are getting in the way of running the nation in a compassionate and ethical way. But for some reason we just can't seem to shake the system. The Electoral College itself was created to balance out these revenge driven politics, but even so, the vote is still decided in the end by party differences.
Immigration itself is something that should be a no-brainer. Our country was built on the backs of immigrants. Why should we now discourage those who wish to make it in the world by not letting them share in our beautiful country and our idealistic freedom?
