RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.10220/pub_detail.asp

The Arab Spring has turned into the dogs of war days of summer. While the president went on vacation turmoil in the Middle East continued to simmer. Protests continue to engulf Syria. In response, the White House mostly turned up the rhetoric. A string of terror bombings ripped through Iraq.

Violence also erupted in the Sinai. Then after heavy fighting in Libya, the rebels took control of nearly the whole Libyan capital of Tripoli. Though Qaddafi’s precise whereabouts remains unknown, the National Transitional Council started to prepare for the transition. While plaudits go out to the Libyan people during this hour, serious questions remain about how – and whether – the rebels can govern the country. Things could fall apart quickly. Meanwhile, Turkish planes bombed Kurdish separatist in Iraq.

Finally, on Saturday, media reports announced that Iran sentenced two innocent American hikers to eight years in jail for allegedly straying across the Iran-Iraq border two years ago. The politicized verdict once again underscores the Islamist regime’s twisted sense of “justice”, which is meted out against Iranians as well as foreigners to advance the interests of a ruthlessly brutal regime.  The show trial of the hiker/hostages is one more slap in the face of the Obama Administration, whose eager rush to engage Tehran has produced no tangible results. It is difficult to argue that the US has been little more than a bystander to most of this turmoil.

On the homefront, the president’s policies were more proactive—but just as detrimental. The Wall Street Journal reported as “a surprise announcement, the Obama administration said it will review the deportation cases of 300,000 illegal immigrants and might allow many of them to stay in the U.S.” The President’s “strategy” for enforcing immigration law, by only going after really “bad people,” also flies in the face of established practices of how to create a culture of compliance with the rule of law. Social scientists James Wilson and George Kelling introduced the “broken windows theory” nearly three decades ago. Its premise was simple: By enforcing “petty” laws, police can help create a well-ordered environment that discourages more serious crime. That theory holds just as well for immigration as it does for other crimes. Finally, the gravest injustice is that strategy will encourage more illegal immigration—actually putting more immigrants at risk for a range of horrible fates, from rape and slavery to dying in the desert, to get here and qualify for Obama’s golden ticket. These facts are laid out in the Heritage paper “The Human Tragedy of Illegal Immigration.”

This is a broken-windows problem if ever there was one. No reasonable person expects the government to deport 11 million people. But it is reasonable to expect the government to make a good-faith effort to enforce the law and secure the border. There are responsible ways to address the issues of immigration and border security to everyone’s benefit, including would-be immigrants. The President, however, has chosen a different course.

Rather than attempt to solve a problem, the President waited for Congress and everyone else to leave town before announcing an initiative designed primarily to pander to those who do not care whether U.S. immigration laws were ever enforced. It is a sad act to make on the eve of the anniversary of 9/11. Our government promised to restore the security of our borders. Now, it is actively working to undermine that promise.

Heritage legal expert Hans Van Spakovsky, argues “the President has an obligation to enforce the immigration laws passed by Congress.  He does not have the authority to ignore a comprehensive federal law that he knows is constitutional.  In fact, this new policy not only ignores the law, it puts the federal government in the position of helping individuals who violated federal law and avoid the sanctions that Congress provided.  The President has no authority to provide a general amnesty – yet he and his administration act as if they are the law. This new policy strikes at a fundamental underpinning of our nation – the rule of law.  It rewards illegality and lawbreakers, encourages even more aliens to enter the United States illegally, and comes at a time when President Obama has started his reelection campaign with such a low approval rating, that it is essential that he get a substantial majority of the Hispanic vote to serve a second term.  It is another shameful instance of putting politics before the law.”

It is difficult to credit the White House with anything positive last week.  It seems more and more as if foreign policy and national security have been put on hold while the president deals with his dropping approval ratings. Presidents, however, have to govern wisely no matter what the politics or the season. Obama’s grade for the week has to be “D” for obviously distracted from his day job.