Yesterday, the White House held a meeting on immigration reform with activists, advocacy groups, and law-enforcement officers to discuss the way forward on immigration reform. Recently, Senate Democrats asked the administration to institute a formal process for allowing potential DREAM Act recipients to apply for "deferred action," meaning, essentially, that they would be given a formal grace period rather than being immediately deported.
The administration, while reiterating its commitment to immigration reform, was not keen on the idea, according to a pro-reform source who was there:
POTUS meeting was about trying to move legislation and getting outside support from Rs, conservative evangelicals, business and law enforcement (unusual allies) to provide push and cover to Rs in Congress. Sincere, to be sure, and in the long run a good strategy (wish he would had this meeting a year ago) to tee up reform down the road. Political, to be sure, in that he has to show Latinos he fighting to keep his promise. But frustrating in that he tried hard to tamp down talk of deferred action and administrative changes. He said things (paraphrasing) like the solution is legislative not administrative, we can't bypass Congress and ignore the laws on the books, we have to change the laws.
The larger context to the administration's cold feet over deferred action is the conservative outrage last year in response to what they called the "Amnesty memo," a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services document outlining the process by which the administration could delay deportations for certain immigrants. While deferred action isn't amnesty in the sense that there's no path to citizenship, conservatives were outraged and framed the memo as an attempt to institute immigration reform by fiat.
Then there's also the fact that the administration has tense relations with some of the workers at the government agencies charged with enforcing immigration laws, which is possibly how the so-called Amnesty memo was leaked in the first place. The union representing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement was practically in open revolt against the administration last year, despite the record deportation numbers the administration has racked up since Obama took office.
The individual present at the meeting was not optimistic about the possibility of reform in the near term.
"Only when the politics are sorted out will there be a serious negotiation, and whoever has the upper hand politically will have the upper hand in the policy negotiations. I'm guessing that will be us. Just may take a few more election cycles before the Rs realize they are in a heap of trouble if they keep alienating the fastest group of new voters in the country. "
