DREAMing of presidential power

by digby

It’s interesting that in the wake of a blistering analysis of the administration’s blind eye toward Latinos in the Washington Post, the president issues an executive order today allowing the DREAM kids to stay in country. In the article the president seemed befuddled by angry activists, saying, “I’m not a king” and telling them to go talk to congress. But it turns out the president does have some power, after all. Who knew?

Adam Serwer gives the rundown:

Here’s why this is a big deal: Obama has previously issued executive orders setting priorities for immigration enforcement, but this order would grant DREAM Act-eligible undocumented immigrants work authorization—that is, allow them to obtain jobs legally in the United States. That will afford them the opportunity to stay in the US and work without fear of deportation, though a temporary and fragile standing that could easily be reversed if Mitt Romney moves into the White House next year.

Republicans will call this “amnesty.” Yet this move doesn’t grant citizenship or legal status. It’s essentially a promise not to deport and permission to work—unless the order is reversed. This is a temporary solution to a policy problem that Congress has consistently lacked the courage to resolve: the presence of undocumented immigrants who are here through no fault of their own and who have never known another home. And the devil is in the implementation. Previous promises to excercize discretion by the administration haven’t panned out as advertised.

And I don’t want to hear one word about the president’s “courage” in doing it. It’s great that he is, and he deserves credit. But it’s late.

And the real credit goes to these DREAM kids who are among the bravest people in our country.They’ve been “coming out” for the past few years, putting their lives at stake, certainly their futures, to try to get the DREAM Act passed. It’s their stories that have made the difference in this debate.

Here’s one of the most famous:

Update: Jonathan Chait’s post on the subject includes this analysis:

Obama came into office with a two-part plan to handle immigration. First, he increased enforcement of the laws, stepping up deportations, in hopes that this would convince hard-liners to make a deal on large-scale reform. Second, he tried to pass, as an immediate compromise measure, the DREAM Act. That would offer legal status to people who came to the United States as children, so long as they have avoided legal trouble and completed a certain level of education or served in the military.

Deportations increased but the DREAM Act failed and the only people who gained were the right wingers who were thrilled to see undocumented workers and their innocent children torn from their homes. I think this is a perfect example of the how the administration managed to enact conservative policies while being simultaneously portrayed as a left winger and socialist. For me, it’s the worst of both worlds in that bad policies are enacted, either as useless efforts to show good will or some presidential desire to have it both ways, while liberalism gets systematically weakened even more than it is.

It seems they have belatedly discovered that this “strategy” was resulting in so many of their own constituents being angry or depressed that it endangered their re-election. But whether it has actually resulted in a change of tactics and strategy for governance in a second term is unknown.