Amnesty for Latino Votes?

Investor's Business Daily
June 18, 2012 Monday

Election '12: In his most brazen act of pandering to date, President Obama has dangled de facto amnesty to 800,000 illegal immigrants in a shameless bid to win Latino votes. This is pure banana-republic electoral politics.

There's zero doubt Obama's Friday order to hand work permits to hundreds of thousands of illegals who claim they were brought here as children is merely an embattled and unpopular president's bid to gain an electoral edge.

Politics trump all other factors that a responsible president would consider, such as the wisdom of dumping nearly a million new job seekers onto the market to compete for jobs with America's 26 million unemployed at a time of sky-high unemployment.

First, Democratic strategists have stated repeatedly that Obama, whose popularity is below 50% in polls, must win the Latino vote at all costs, particularly in swing states. Obama's move panders to them.

Second, it closely follows the Dream Act prescription, favored by the open-borders lobby, the one group he must please to secure the votes. The Act stalled in Congress for lack of votes amid high public opposition.

It also comes as a flip-flop. Obama has told his supporters in the past that he couldn't take such a brazen step, knowing that its legality and clear usurpation of congressional authority would be questioned.

And it was -- by GOP Senators Charles Grassley of Iowa and Marco Rubio of Florida. Apparently, now that Obama's re-election is on the line, anything goes.

But it's the time frame that really gives the game away: The relief from deportation orders will be meted out in two-year increments, timed precisely with each election cycle. That way, Democrats can tell the Latino lobby to either mobilize the vote for them -- or the amnesty goodies end.

This is no different from banana-republic politicos buying votes for bags of beans. Obama's gambit is in fact straight from Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who, facing a tight recall referendum in 2004, handed citizenship to 2 million illegal immigrants in Venezuela to secure votes, and with Jimmy Carter's help, won.

It's also been done in that other banana-republic, California, where in 2003, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis offered drivers licenses to millions of illegals to secure Latino votes for his own recall referendum. It maddened California's voters and Davis was booted.

Obama is betting that America's voters will behave more like Venezuelans than Californians, but the tragic thing is that he's harming the interests of the country.

Illegals with criminal pasts that can be punished with less than a year in the slammer will be fully eligible.

What's more, our system of law will be corrupted, as officials assure the work permits are handed out on a "case-by-case basis," an ideal setup for bribes and kickbacks. Rubio warns the move will encourage more illegal immigration -- and discourage legal migrants.

The losers here are the American people, who have a leader who seems more interested in short-term political gain than actual governance -- and who seems oblivious to the disruption this new amnesty policy will cause as the rule of law is undermined.

November can't come soon enough.

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