Editors at National Review Online critique President Biden’s latest immigration policy mistake.
Introducing his latest “immigration relief” policy at the White House, … President Biden told the assembled crowd that the changes he was making had been considered by Congress and had “passed.” Then, correcting himself, he conceded that this was not true. Rather, he admitted, he was announcing yet another “executive order.”
That Biden chose the twelfth anniversary of DACA to promulgate his alterations is fitting. Indeed, all that was missing was a commemorative sign that read, “Twelve years of ignoring the Constitution.” The creation of DACA, you may recall, was marked by President Barack Obama’s astonishing insistence that “if Congress won’t act, I will.” Prior to its announcement, Obama had explained frequently that he did not have the power to rewrite immigration law on the fly. “I am not a king,” Obama said often. “I am not an emperor.” But, with a tough reelection fight looming, he forgot all that and did it anyway. Civically, this represented a low moment in American history. That President Biden aspires to celebrate it — let alone to build on it — is damning in the extreme.
Alas, that, undoubtedly, is his aim. Adopting his decreasingly persuasive tough-guy pose, Biden told the audience, “Folks, I’m not interested in playing politics with the border or with immigration.” Considered from any angle, this was a disgraceful thing to say. For a start, Joe Biden has, in fact, “played politics” with the border, and he did so again in this speech when he pretended preposterously that it was “Trump and the Republicans” — rather than the progressive wing of his coalition — who were standing in the way of his ability to deal with the problem. Tellingly, Biden has now tried to have this issue both ways in the space of six months. Earlier this year, Biden claimed that he could not enforce existing immigration law without further input from Congress. Last month, he reversed himself and then demanded credit for doing a small part of the job he was supposed to have been doing all along.
