You Can’t Trust Washington on Immigration

Amy Payne / February 07, 2014

President Obama can’t be trusted to enforce U.S. laws—and that makes many lawmakers hesitant to pass new immigration laws.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said yesterday that this was proving to be a roadblock:

Listen, there’s widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. And it’s going to be difficult to move any immigration legislation until that changes.

At The Foundry’s Conversations with Conservatives just a day earlier, Representatives Raul Labrador (R-ID) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) said there was support in the House for waiting on immigration reform until this trust issue can be addressed.

“It’s just tough to work with this President when you’ve seen his track record on this issue and others,” Jordan said. “It’s tough to negotiate with someone in good faith when they’ve done the things they’ve done.”

Derrick Morgan, Heritage’s vice president for domestic and economic policy, says that the President’s refusal to enforce all the current immigration laws is a key point where the U.S. immigration system is breaking down.

In an exclusive interview with Foundry Senior Contributor Genevieve Wood, Morgan said that Obama has “already circumvented immigration law with respect to large numbers of unlawful immigrants already in the country.”

Of course, the President’s State of the Union threat that he would forge ahead with executive action on multiple issues has people wondering when and where the next shoe will drop.

Morgan, in this first interview excerpt, warns that Congress should steer away from any new policy that mimics amnesty, which America tried in the ‘80s only to see a ballooning of the illegal population. Instead, it’s important to focus on fixing border security, improving enforcement of the law in the workplace, and reforming the immigration system to make it smoother for people attempting to immigrate legally.

With any broad issue like this, Congress needs to take its time and get it right. We’ve seen too many massive, rushed bills—from Obamacare to the recent $1 trillion omnibus spending bill. The President isn’t the only one who needs to work on his trustworthiness.

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