“The Senate immigration bill has become toxic for many on the center-right, and some on the pro-worker left. Its purported ‘comprehensiveness’ has been exposed as a morass of giveaways, backroom deals, and loopholes. Its promises of enforcement could easily be broken (that is, assuming they were designed to be kept), and, as even the Congressional Budget Office has conceded, its enforcement strategies, even if carried out, could still allow millions more illegal immigrants over the course of the next decade,” says Fred Bauer in National Revie<\/a>w.<\/p>\n “Observing this grassroots anger about the Senate\u2019s approach to immigration, House Republicans have countered with a \u201cpiecemeal\u201d approach to the issue, in which the House would pass a series of small-ball immigration bills instead of agreeing on a sweeping grand bargain. If the piecemeal immigration measures go to conference with the Senate bill, though, the conferees could end up sabotaging this strategy.”<\/p>\n “Young immigrants in the country illegally have escalated their protests against deportations this week, creating awkward dilemmas for Obama administration officials who are pressing the House of Representatives to pass broad immigration legislation this fall,” the New York Times<\/a> writes.<\/p>\n “With leaders in the House saying they could take up several immigration bills, the administration is walking a fine line. They want to avoid arrests or deportations of advocates that could create a confrontation between the White House and groups mobilizing support for overhaul legislation that Mr. Obama supports. But officials are also trying to persuade skeptical Republicans that the administration is vigorously enforcing immigration law.”<\/p>\n The Washington Times<\/a> has a story about the bus protest as well. “Illegal immigrants chained themselves to a gate and blocked a bus in Phoenix on Wednesday in an effort to stop the Obama administration from deporting other illegal immigrants, according to activists who said the move marks an escalation in civil disobedience.”<\/p>\n “Say Congress fails to pass an immigration-reform bill. Could President Obama use his executive powers to effectively legalize the 11 million illegal immigrants who are already in the United States?” asks Washington Post blogger Brad Plummer<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Sen. Marco Rubio thinks so. He warned House Republicans that if they don\u2019t pass a bill, Obama will act: \u201cI believe that this president will be tempted, if nothing happens in Congress,\u201d Rubio said, ‘to issue an executive order as he did for the Dream Act kids a year ago, where he basically legalizes 11 million people by the sign of a pen.'” Illegal Aliens Dare Obama to Deport<\/h3>\n
Debating Obama’s Power to Legalize<\/h3>\n