I’m a bit late on the bandwagon here, but permit me a few comments on the President’s recent speech regarding immigration policy.
I have to say that I liked the speech. It’s one of the more recent speeches I’ve heard from the President that was easy to listen to, and not nearly so partisan (I’m gonna get nailed for that one :)).
First impression.
Off the top, my overall reaction to the speech was, “This speech is very short on specifics, but it actually presented commonsense solutions.” A refreshing change from the convoluted birth of the Affordable Care Act.
Secondly, the President absolutely delivered on his promise to take actions of dubious legal merit.
Finally, and most interestingly to me, the speech actually tried to persuade opposition voters. I think this is the greatest virtue of the speech since many commentators have noted the increasing combativeness of the Obama White House towards the Republican Party in general, and with members of Congress specifically.
Certainly conservative voters have not felt inclined to support many of the presidents policy projects, but he was definitely reaching out to them even if he was reprimanding their representatives.
So those are the general comments. Below are ten of my reactions to the speech.
1. “Thanks for the reminder…. no really, thank you.”
For more than 200 years, our tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world has given us a tremendous advantage over other nations.
One of most frustrating aspects of the immigration policy debate is the frequent forgetfulness on the part of most Americans that this is an immigrant nation, and that most, if not all, of us are descended from immigrants. So it’s nice to be reminded that this is part of what makes America America.
Hopefully, such a reminder will redirect peoples attention to addressing the actual issue rather than developing an anti-immigrant narrative.
2. “Um…… Alternate causality?”
Today we have more agents and technology deployed to secure our southern border than at any time in our history. And over the past six years illegal border crossings have been cut by more than half…..
Overall the number of people trying to cross our border illegally is at its lowest level since the 1970s. Those are the facts.
In two places Barack Obama touted the decrease of illegal border crossings during his tenure as president. I laughed when listening to the speech and a student wanted to know why.
I told her, “This is how you learn about alternate causality.”
Six years ago it was 2008. What does 2008 have to do with the 1970s?
In both cases the economy absolutely sucked.
I think the real causes as to why people stop coming across the border looking for jobs and an economically better life is pretty clear.
3. “Disingenuous much?”
Meanwhile, I worked with Congress on a comprehensive fix. And last year 68 Democrats, Republicans, and independents came together to pass a bipartisan bill in the Senate….
Had the House of Representatives allowed that kind of bill a simple yes or no vote, it would have passed with support from both parties. And today it would be the law. But for a year and a half now Republican leaders in the House have refused to allow that simple vote. Now I continue to believe that the best way to solve this problem is by working together to pass that kind of common sense law. 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.
I really like how often Barack Obama talks about working together to pass bills, then turns right around and lectures his opponents on their lack of bipartisanship.
It’s incredibly disingenuous to poke fun or make demands of your opposition and then say, “But let’s work together guys, it could happen.”
The “pass a bill” line was probably ill-advised if you’re actually trying to accomplish such bipartisanship, but more on that below.
4. “Excellent distinction to make right there.”
That’s why over the past six years deportations of criminals are up 80 percent, and that’s why we’re going to keep focusing enforcement resources on actual threats to our security. Felons, not families. Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mom who’s working hard to provide for her kids. We’ll prioritize, just like law e enforcement does every day.
But even as we focus on deporting criminals, the fact is millions of immigrants in every state, of every race and nationality still live here illegally.
HUGE distinction to make. I think we often get caught up in focusing on the bad minority, freak out, and then pass a law affecting the entirety. Immigrants (legal and illegal) are far to complex and diverse a demographic to simply have one policy for. I’m glad the President articulated that.
5. “That sounds so commonsense, we should make it policy…. or something.”
We expect those who cut the line will not be unfairly rewarded. So we’re going to offer the following deal: If you’ve with been in America more than five years. If you have children who are American citizens or illegal residents. If you register, pass a criminal background check and you’re willing to pay your fair share of taxes, you’ll be able to apply to stay in this country temporarily without fear of deportation. You can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. That’s what this deal is.
I think the solutions Barack Obama presented to address illegal immigration in a practical way make a lot of sense. Two of the biggest complaints I hear regarding illegal immigrants is that they are a weight on the taxpayer and they undercut jobs. Barack Obama’s proposals are probably the most common sense to actually address those two problems without departing massive numbers of people (which would be more expensive and inhumane than doing what he suggests).
Additionally, there’s a problem with trying to actually create a mass deportation program.
In the past, when America tries to do something like that it ends up being some blight on the country’s record for the rest of history. For example, internment of Japanese citizens during World War II.
6. “I see what you did you there.”
As my predecessor, President Bush, once put it, they are a part of American life.
Barack Obama never loses an opportunity to throw a punch at George W. Bush. Number 43 has been one of the biggest punching bags/straw-men of the President’s administration. Absolutely George W. Bush tried to address immigration, illegal immigrants specifically. However it’s kind of smoke and mirrors just to quote a president on illegal immigration and then assume that he meant the same exact thing you’re saying. However, it’s still a pretty good jab and is a bit of return to 2008 form on the part of the president.
Even like 2008, there’s an insurgency Iraq.
7. o_O
And 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.
The “pass a bill line” is a little over-the-top given the tone of the rest of the speech that is generally persuasive. However, it does indicate that Barack Obama has a little bit of nuance to how he sees the conservative block in America.
He divides it between conservative leaders in Congress and average conservative voters.
So I think we can take this line to be that he was targeting the speech mostly at conservative voters in an effort to get them to communicate their support to their Republican representatives, hopefully to get the ball rolling on a bill.
However, that’s where the effectiveness of such a line actually works against you. While he might persuade some conservative voters, they are still generally intelligent people who don’t like to have their representatives (and by extension, themselves) commanded so imperiously.
8. “Those speechwriters have a flair for rhetoric.”
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? Are we a nation that educates the world’s best and brightest in our universities only to send them home to create businesses in countries that compete against us, or are we a nation that encourages them to stay and create jobs here, create businesses here, create industries right here in America? That’s what this debate is all about.
Barack Obama has always had a flair for the rhetorical question which is, of course, the empty form of argumentation of our time. He’s one of the few presidents who has really mastered this rhetorical device in such a way that he only needs to ask the question and his media acolytes will quickly answer it for him.
Still you have to hand it to Barack Obama’s speech writers that they play to his strengths, which are to ask rhetorical questions and to share emotive narratives. In this case the use of rhetorical questions and the use of Astrid’s story to illustrate the plight of many second-generation illegal immigrants were quite useful and persuasive pieces of the speech. In fact, I’m a little surprised that more of this kind of stuff was not used in the speech, but that only goes to show the steps that were being taken to actually make it persuasive and accessible to conservative voters.
9. “Why are my eyebrows moving upward?”
Scripture tells us, we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger. We were strangers once, too.
The quotation of Scripture was interesting to say the least. I was waiting to hear the howls of protest from the ACLU and other separation-of-church-and-state advocates, but I guess it’s okay if a liberal president says it (Perhaps I missed something?).
However, it is kind of interesting that he used it right at the end, seemingly using the authority of Scripture to justify his extralegal authority on the executive order. I think this is fascinating, but it should also be something we treat with great caution because it indicates a couple of things:
First, it indicates that civil religion is alive and well in America.
When a progressive, Democratic president uses Scripture as a rhetorical and persuasive device in the speech you know that there’s still a place for Judeo-Christian values and concepts.
Second, it indicates that Scripture will continue to be abused at the behest of politics.
One blogger I read accused the President of misusing the scriptural quotation (not sure he did), but this also points to something that should be of concern to most pastors and any Christian who takes their faith seriously: the culture wars are not nearly as over as some people would like to say and there are people ready, willing and waiting to use Scripture to justify their position. This means that more serious attention needs to be given to identifying how one uses Scripture properly in the public sphere.
10. “I don’t want democracy to die, but would be OK if WAPO’s slow page loads did.”
the Washington Post was the number one result on Google when you type in “transcript obama immigration speech.”
However, the page took FOREVER to load on my mobile device. I had to reload their page over and over again just to read the transcript of Barack Obama’s speech. This was largely due to the fact that the transcript was interspersed with video clips that slowed the entire site down. WAPO, if by some ridiculous chance you’re reading this, please do concerned citizens a favor and develop your UX a little bit better. Thanks. 🙂
How did you react to the President Obama’s speech? Let me know in the comments below!
“Barack Obama heads to motorcade in Mexico City 4-16-09” by White House (Pete Souza) / Maison Blanche (Pete Souza) – http://www.whitehouse.gov/photogallery/Summit-of-the-Americas-Behind-the-Scenes/. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
