By Judd Gregg - 11-17-14 06:00 AM EST
There is a great deal of talk at present, emanating from the White House and its allies, that President Obama will move unilaterally on immigration.
Leaks in recent days have suggested that the president may try to give some sort of legal status to around 5 million people who are in this country illegally. He will do this by executive order and not engage the Congress. He will thus score significant points with the Hispanic community and shore up an important bloc of support for the Democratic Party.
If the president presses ahead with this plan, it will create a cataclysmic confrontation with the Republican Congress.
If such an action truly involves the essential legalization of people who are here illegally, it will be an abuse of power that affronts the sensibilities of our democracy. Our democracy is, and must be, based upon the rule of law.
If the president were to go ahead with the kind of action that has been rumored, it would also represent a massive undermining of the terms of our Constitution, based as it is upon the checks and balances of a divided government.
Some pundits, such as Bill O’Reilly of Fox News, are already saying that such action would be so egregious as to require the Congress to proceed to impeachment proceedings. Others on the right are calling for the GOP to “go to the mattresses” if the president issues such an executive order.
If the rumors of the president’s intentions prove true, the outrage of his opponents would be legitimate. But their proposed responses would amount to the self-immolation of the GOP.
In fact, the entire effort of Republicans on the issue of immigration reform has been fairly self destructive so far, with the exception of the McCain-Schumer bill that passed the Senate in 2013 and then disappeared in the House. All we hear from the pundits and shouters is “No amnesty, No way.” This is not really a policy, more a jingoistic slogan.
Now that the GOP will control the Congress there is a better approach. It is one with political and substantive upside.
First, Republicans should break the issue down into parts. There should be no comprehensive bill. Rather there should be a series of bills — four, in fact.
The initial three should be passed in the first month of the new Congress.
First, pass a bill securing the borders. It should include more resources and specific new enforcement powers for the border patrol and associated state agencies. It should have goals that can be measured, thus enabling accountability. Send this to the president, let him veto it if he wants.
Second, pass a bill dramatically expanding the H-1B program using the Canadian template, where they give priority to people who have skills that can enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the economy, and thus help create jobs. Send this to the president. Let him veto it if he wants.
Third, pass a bill that significantly penalizes employers who hire and exploit illegal immigrants. Send this to the president. Let him veto it if he wants.
If the president has by then acted unilaterally and issued an executive order legalizing illegal immigrants, that would be extra-judicial. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would then have every right to bring these three bills to the floor, fill the tree (as outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid [D-Nev.] did so often) and put them through without amendments.
If the president has not acted by then, Senate Republicans should take the bills up anyway and pass them in the regular process. It would be a good way to begin the year.
The fourth bill is of course the challenging one. It involves how to address the issue of immigrants who are here illegally. As a practical matter, we are not going to send these people home as there are simply too many of them — by some estimates, between 12 million and 15 million people.
The best way to handle this issue is for the Republican Congress to pass a bill that creates a new status. It cannot be a status which leads to full U.S. citizenship.
Call it a blue card, as has been proposed. To qualify for the card, a person would have had to be here for at least five years, not have committed any crimes, not be receiving or receive in the future welfare assistance or Medicaid, agree to do some form of non-political community service as restitution for entering the country illegally and attempt to learn English.
Send this bill to the president. Let him veto it if he wants.
This is the politically thoughtful, adult and effective way to deal with the president should he issue such a rogue order.
It is also the best way to deal with the immigration issue, an issue the GOP must put to bed under any scenario.
Judd Gregg (R) is a former governor and three-term senator from New Hampshire who served as chairman and ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and as ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Foreign Operations subcommittee.
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