Ramesh Ponnuru writes today:
There’s no evidence that any president, up to and including Barack Obama earlier in his tenure, ever thought that it would be proper to grant legal status to several million illegal immigrants unilaterally.
I agree with him that Obama should press the GOP (yet again) to pass comprehensive immigration reform rather than issue a mass deferral of deportation. But we should also be able to agree on some facts. And that sentence misleads – just as Ross’ latest column misrepresents the truth. Obama is not able to grant legal status to millions by himself. At best, he can grant temporary legal status by deferring deportation. But such a status would expire with his presidency. As for no precedent, granting 5 million immigrants a deferral of deportation is more expansive than 1.5 million under Reagan and the first Bush. But again, if we’re talking about mass deferrals of deportation in the millions, there sure is a precedent. And it was set by that icon of conservatism, Ronald Reagan, in an era when large swathes of the right actually believed in open borders.
The Dish 