Obama Wants Illegals to Succeed

On Monday, President Obama made an appearance on the Spanish-language television network Univision to chat, unsurprisingly, about amnesty for illegal immigrants and the deportation of students. The President distinguished between “criminal” illegal aliens, those who commit crimes once inside the United States, and “non-criminal” illegal aliens (so, just forget that initial crime of, you know, illegally crossing the border). Of course never missing the opportunity to tout the DREAM Act, the President said he wanted to focus on the deportation of “criminal” illegals but that he wants student-illegals to stay and “succeed.”

On this issue, at least, the President understands that he cannot flout the immigration laws passed by Congress: “There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order [to prevent deportations of students] ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.” It might be nice if the President were as concerned with the success of taxpaying American citizens – unemployment rates, anyone?