ALSO SEE: Why Major US TV Networks Didn't Show Obama's Immigration Address

Obama Goes Big on Immigration

By John Cassidy, The New Yorker

21 November 14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wejt939QXko

or a two-term President whom his critics used to call “the speechifier,” Barack Obama has given surprisingly few memorable speeches, and none for quite a while. Sometimes his speechwriters over-egg it, and his language seems a bit stilted. On other occasions, he goes on for too long and his delivery is flat. Thursday night’s much-anticipated address on immigration, which he delivered from the East Room of the White House, was an extended statement rather than a full-blown speech, and it was much better for it. It was direct and to the point; it had some uplifting moments, particularly at the end; and it was relatively short—about fifteen minutes.

With a crowd of immigration-reform supporters gathered across the street, in Washington’s Lafayette Square, and with Univision interrupting its coverage of the Latin Grammys to show the speech live, there had been suggestions on conservative Web sites that Obama would be preaching to the converted rather than to the country at large. As soon as he started talking, though, it was clear that he was making his pitch to the mass of voters who, opinion polls suggest, are in favor of some sort of path to citizenship for the undocumented but also have concerns about the President going it alone.

After a hat tip to immigration’s historical role in keeping America “youthful, dynamic, and entrepreneurial,” and a quick reminder that he has beefed up border security, deported a lot of uninvited foreigners, and overseen a decline in illegal border crossings of more than fifty per cent, Obama put the blame for what he was about to do squarely on his adversaries: the Republican leaders in the House of Representatives who had refused to allow a vote on a bipartisan immigration-reform bill. “I continue to believe that the best way to solve this problem is by working together to pass that kind of common-sense law,” Obama said. “But, until that happens, there are actions I have the legal authority to take as President—the same kinds of actions taken by Democratic and Republican Presidents before me—that will help make our immigration system more fair and more just.”

If there had been any hecklers, or Fox News reporters, on hand, one of them might well have shouted that no previous President has taken executive action on the scale that Obama is proposing, which will remove the threat of deportation for perhaps as many as five million illegal immigrants. But the President had the stage to himself, and he used it to appeal to the better nature of his countrymen and countrywomen. “Most of these immigrants have been here a long time,” he said. “They work hard, often in tough, low-paying jobs. They support their families. They worship at our churches. Many of their kids are American-born or spent most of their lives here, and their hopes, dreams, and patriotism are just like ours. As my predecessor, President Bush, once put it: ‘They are a part of American life.’ ”

Mentioning George W. was another not so subtle reminder of how the G.O.P. has drifted to the dark side on this issue. And Obama followed it up by insisting that he wasn’t going to give the undocumented a free pass. This was not “amnesty,” he insisted with a commendably straight face. Those affected—mainly immigrants who have been here for more than five years and have children who are U.S. citizens or legal residents—would have to register with the government, pass a criminal-background check, and pay their taxes, including fines for late payment. In return, they would be allowed to stay in the country and work legally. They wouldn’t get citizenship, or permanent residency, or access to “the same benefits that citizens receive”—i.e., no health-care subsidies—but they would no longer face the threat of being deported. “You can come out of the shadows and get right with the law,” Obama said. “That’s what this deal is.… What I’m describing is accountability—a common-sense, middle-ground approach.”

Claiming the middle ground is a standard—some would say a defining—Obama tactic. On this issue, as I pointed out in an earlier post, he is justified in saying that he isn’t the one occupying the extreme position, and he didn’t hesitate to repeat the point: “To those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: pass a bill.”

Pointing out Republican obstreperousness isn’t a winning strategy on its own, however, and the President knows it. He also needs to persuade the American people that what he is doing is just and right, and in the final part of his speech he once again elevated his argument, by asking a list of rhetorical questions:

Are we a nation that tolerates the hypocrisy of a system where workers who pick our fruit and make our beds never have a chance to get right with the law? Or are we a nation that gives them a chance to make amends, take responsibility, and give their kids a better future?

Are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents’ arms? Or are we a nation that values families, and works together to keep them together? …

That’s what this debate is all about.

To conclude, the President reached for Scripture, as he quite often does, in this case the Book of Exodus: “Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger—we were strangers once, too.” And he went on:

My fellow-Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. And whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, or what our last names are, or how we worship. What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal—that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.
That’s the country our parents and grandparents and generations before them built for us. That’s the tradition we must uphold. That’s the legacy we must leave for those who are yet to come.

From where this immigrant was sitting, it was an effective ending. But, of course, it is really only the beginning. Barely had Obama left the East Room when Charles Krauthammer, on Fox News, was declaring that he had issued “an invitation to anybody to come across the border and know they will ultimately be legalized.” Over on CNN, Newt Gingrich was suggesting that Republicans, in the next Congress, would methodically punish the President, refusing even to take up the nomination of Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder as Attorney General.

Obama knows all of this is coming, of course. For one night, though, he had his say.