by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright February 17, 2015
All Rights Reserved.

             Getting the bad news from a federal judge in Texas, 53-year-old Barack Obama got his Nov. 21, 2014 executive order to stop deportations of 5 million illegal immigrants struck down today.  When Obama issued his executive order without Congressional approval, he threw more gasoline on already dismal relations with the Republicans on Capitol Hill.  U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in Browsville, Texas put the kibosh on Obama’s plans to bypass working with Congress for a consensus on immigration reform in his last two years in office.  After imposing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on Congress March 23, 2010, Obama should have learned a bitter lesson what happens when you railroad national legislation without one Republican vote.  A coalition of 26 states convinced Judge Hanen to stop Obama’s second attempt to legislate without consensus.

             Immigration reform was taken off the 2014 agenda by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), unwilling to hammer out legislation during an election year.  Judging by the GOP landslide in the House and Senate, voters also agreed that they didn’t like Obama imposing himself again without working with Congress   More than anything else, the 2014 Midterm elections mirrored Obama’s unilateral policies, especially Obamacare and executive action on immigration reform.  Judge Hanen ruled that Obama violated the “Take Care Clause” of the U.S. Constitution that limits presidential power.  “Judge Hanen’s decision rightfully stopped the president’s overreach in its tracks,” said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in a statement.  Twenty-six states argued Obama’s executive action could cause irreparable harm to states granting illegal immigrants applications for “deferred action.”

             Democrats dismissed Judge Hanen’s injunction as delaying the inevitable yet raising the “Take Care Clause” opens up a can of worms for the White House.  With Obama’s request for a war authorization in the GOP’s Congressional hands, the latest setback doesn’t bode well for his funding to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.  Republican hawks led by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, don’t think the president’s strategy or tactics can accomplish his state goal of “destroying” ISIS.  McCain and other Capitol Hill hawks want some type of U.S. ground troops to help the battered Iraqi army and Kurd’s Peshmerga fighters to take back Mosul and other Iraqi and Syrian towns and cities.  Obama’s backers in Texas vowed to keep up the fight to protect the sons-and-daughters of illegal immigrants from possible arrests and eventual deportations.

             Backers of Obama’s executive order to stop some 5 million deportations vowed to continue the fight for undocumented workers.  “We will continue getting immigrants ready to apply for administrative relieve,” said Joaquin Guerra, political director of Texas Organization Project, calling Judge Hanen’s ruling a “temporary setback.”  Congressional Republicans threatened to not renew funding for the Homeland Security Agency, set to expire at the end of February.  Congressional Republicans passed a $39.7 billion continuing budget resolution to keep funding through the end of the fiscal years as long as Obama rescinded his executive order on immigration.  White House officials face the unenviable task of justifying executive action because they can’t play ball with Congressional Republicans.  It’s doubtful the House bill that drops Obama’s executive order to fund Homeland Security can pass the Senate.

             Obama’s problems with the GOP in Congress started the day he placed his left hand on the bible and was sworn in Jan. 20, 2009.  Barack let House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) railroad national health care legislation known as Obamacare.  Forcing the Senate vote Dec. 24, 2009 without one Republican soured Barack’s relationship with Congressional Republicans, promoting today’s gridlock.  Apart from flowery speeches, with less than two years left to his presidency, Obama has shown no interest in working with the GOP.  All indications point to things getting worse for Obama if he vetoes the Keystone XL pipeline.  If Barack let Keystone XL pass, he’d at least have a shot at immigration reform or his ISIS war authorization   Vetoing Keystone XL will inject more poison into Washington’s partisan gridlock.

             Getting his executive order struck down should serve as a wake-up call to Obama to work with Congressional Republicans in his last two years.  Signing the Keystone XL pipeline would offer Congressional Republicans the kind of olive branch to improve Obama’s chances of getting his ISIS war authorization and, somewhere down the road, immigration reform.  Vetoing Keystone XL practically guarantees gridlock to the end of Obama’s term.  Without some legislative success in the next two years, Obama offers the GOP the best talking points about why the country needs a Republican in 2016:  Only a Republican president can work with a Republican Congress.  Whether it’s legal or not, using executive orders to impose immigration reform backfired on Obama.  His only hope of getting things back on track is to compromise with the GOP and sign the Keystone XL pipeline.

About the Author