New York Times Urges President to Take Executive Action on Immigration

The New York Times on Friday urged President Barack Obama to take executive action on immigration reform as soon as possible and to “make it big” – despite recent Republican warnings against taking such steps on his own.

In an editorial, the newspaper defended the need for the president to take action immediately and not cave in to calls from a part of Congress where the speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, has said that if Obama attempts to resolve the issue by executive action, it will destroy any chance of immigration reform in the future.

“But Republicans have had many, many opportunities to move on immigration, and never have,” The New York Times said, recalling how bipartisan reform bills introduced into Congress since 2006 have all been killed.

The New York daily considers that the president has strong arguments for using his executive power in order to protect millions of the undocumented from deportation and give them the chance to have legal employment.

Among them, the paper recalls that this will benefit the entire country because it will “boost the economy, undercut labor exploitation and ease the strain on law enforcement” so it can concentrate on fighting violent criminals, terrorists and other public-safety threats.

The New York Times also expresses concern that the measures planned by Obama might be “too cautious, small and narrow,” and encourages the president to at least offer protection to those immigrants who could have applied to have their status legalized under the law passed by the Senate in 2013 but blocked by the House of Representatives.

That legislation would have opened the door to legal residence in the country for millions of people if they accepted being fined and paid their overdue taxes.

“Mr. Obama strongly endorsed the bill. His executive action should be just as broad,” the daily said, adding that if undocumented immigrants have strong bonds to the United States and their deportation contributes nothing to the national interest, they should be given the chance to stay.

Obama promised last Wednesday after the midterm elections that he will undertake, before the end of the year, executive action to fix as much as possible the immigration system while neutralizing congressional obstruction, though he has not yet provided any details about the kind of measures being considered.

Published in Latino Daily News