Adam Serwer lays out how Obama’s immigration policies have failed the reform movement — and given the GOP an excuse to move even further right:
Republican resistance to any kind of immigration reform and the administration’s own lofty rhetoric of acceptance obscure the fact that while President Obama talks like an immigration moderate, in practice his actions are those of an unapologetic immigration hawk who has tightened border security without fulfilling his promise of immigration reform. The administration has been deporting illegal immigrants at a higher rate than the Bush administration and is deploying unmanned drones and more than a thousand National Guard troops to secure the border. On Tuesday, with the administration’s support, Congress approved more funding for border security, deploying more resources to border security and adding more Border Patrol agents, law enforcement, and drones to the effort.