¡Sí, Se Puede!: Obama Promises Emotional Immigration Debate

Using American children for props once again, today President Obama spoke at the majority Hispanic Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, Nevada to stump for a general amnesty plan for millions of illegal immigrants. Unlike the bipartisan framework presented by eight Senators, which includes an attempt at enforcement, Obama had no interest in actual border protection; that would thwart his goal of creating millions of new Democratic voters out of whole cloth, then using that measure as a magnet to attract millions of potential Democratic voters across the border.

The speech was attended by a constellation of government officials, all of whom flew in for the photo op: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. And Obama brought along some of his favorite liberal mayors from border states, too, including Greg Stanton from crime-heavy Phoenix and Ashley Swearengin from Fresno, California.

Using his typically urgent language – “the time is now!” he stated, right after telling Americans that “making progress on the defining challenges of our time … requires us to act!” – Obama called for no additional border security, and immediate attempts to grant citizenship status to those who have crossed the border in violation of United States law. As the audience chanted “Si se puede! Si se puede!,” Obama explained that violating US law had no consequences, because … well, just because:

Right now, we have 11 million undocumented immigrants in America; 11 million men and women from all over the world who live their lives in the shadows. Yes, they broke the rules. They crossed the border illegally. Maybe they overstayed their visas. Those are facts. Nobody disputes them. But these 11 million men and women are now here. Many of them have been here for years. And the overwhelming majority of these individuals aren’t looking for any trouble. They’re contributing members of the community. They’re looking out for their families. They’re looking out for their neighbors. They’re woven into the fabric of our lives.

None of this would explain why Obama thinks there should be no additional border security. Said Obama, “we need to stay focused on enforcement.” Not focused enough to let Arizona enforce her border, and not focused enough to place additional resources on the border. But focused enough to “crack down more forcefully on businesses.”

While Obama paid lip service to the notion that illegal immigrants would have to pass “a background check, pay taxes, pay a penalty, learn  English, and then go to the back of the line,” Obama added this crucial proviso: “if you are a citizen, you shouldn’t have to wait years before your family is able to join you in America.” In other words, once we get this wave of illegal immigrants signed up, they get to immediately sponsor their families. And by families, Obama reportedly includes same-sex lovers.

And above all, Obama kept saying, we must do all of this now. Not during his first term, when he had control of Congress. Now. When he can demagogue the issue. “Action!” said Obama. “We can’t allow immigration reform to get bogged down in an endless debate …. If Congress is unable to move forward in a timely fashion, I will send up a bill based on my proposal and insist that they vote on it right away.”

Why did Obama delay the debate on immigration until now? So he can blame Republicans for not acceding to his radical plan, of course, and then call them racists. Obama is already preparing the groundwork for that eventuality:

I promise you this: The closer we get, the more emotional this debate is going to become. Immigration has always been an issue that enflames passions. That’s not surprising. There are few things that are more important to us as a society than who gets to come here and call our country home; who gets the privilege of becoming a citizen of the United States of America. That’s a big deal.

When we talk about that in the abstract, it’s easy sometimes for the discussion to take on a feeling of “us” versus “them.” And when that happens, a lot of folks forget that most of “us” used to be “them.” We forget that.

No, we don’t. This has never been “us” versus “them.” This has always been about what is best for the United States of America. But in Barack Obama’s mind, what is best for the Democratic Party is what is best for the United States of America, regardless of the consequences to the economy, culture, and future of the country.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the book “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).