By Paul Bremmer
President Obama’s looming executive action on immigration reform represents a Fort Sumter-type moment, according to conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly.
Fort Sumter, of course, is the sea fort in Charleston, South Carolina. It was there the opening shots of the U.S. Civil War were fired on April 12, 1861.
Schlafly at first considered comparing the Obama amnesty to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but decided that Obama’s plan is much more subtle.
“With Pearl Harbor, the American people knew what was happening,” she said.
But Fort Sumter represented the beginning of a ruinous war, and Schlafly, like fellow conservative luminary Richard Viguerie, speculates that an executive amnesty might touch off a sort of modern-day conflagration.
Obama plans to announce his unilateral immigration reform proposal in a televised address Thursday night. While no details are being released by the White House until then, analysts widely expect it to include work permits for up to five million people currently in the U.S. illegally.
However, the administration may be expecting to authorize many more than those five million. Last month, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services began searching for a contractor capable of producing up to 34 million blank green cards over the next five years.
Obama’s executive order is also expected to shield millions of illegal immigrants from deportation, including some parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. The Washington Post reported that the plan will broaden visa programs for highly skilled technology workers.
Two components of the plan would seem to appease immigration control advocates. At the National Press Club Wednesday, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson claimed the president’s order would include steps to secure the southern border of the United States. And “an official familiar with the administration’s deliberations” told the New York Times the newly authorized illegal aliens would not be eligible for subsidized health insurance plans under Obamacare.
Schlafly, whose recently published book “Who Killed the American Family?” came out just days before she turned 90, is not at all reassured by those latter two parts of the plan.
Asked whether she trusts Obama to secure the nation’s southern border, she replied, “No. I don’t trust him.”
She pointed out that politicians have been promising to secure the border for years, but it remains wide open. She remembers when Obama’s predecessor failed to deliver on a promised border fence.
“I remember seeing George W. Bush’s photo op,” Schlafly said. “He was signing the law to build the fence. And they never built it!”
She is also skeptical of the idea that beneficiaries of Obama’s amnesty will be barred from receiving health care subsidies.
“No, I don’t think he will deny them Obamacare,” she said.
So is the president lying?
“I think he lies about everything,” Schlafly said.
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