Obama's Executive Action Isn't Outrageous. It's How Immigration Reform Gets Done.

The playbook is pretty simple: Parole some undocumented people. Wait for the furor to die down. Sign a law a few years later to legalize them permanently.

 

It is how presidents for the past 40 years, Republicans and Democrats, have handled the thorny problem of immigration. This is the path that President Obama has chosen in exercising executive authority to legalize some 4 million unauthorized immigrants currently in the United States.

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"This is not ideal. This is not the way we wanted it happen," said Sojourners President Jim Wallis, who is part of a broad religious coalition that has lobbied both Congress and the president to change immigration law. "At least he's acting. He's causing things to happen. So the Republicans will now have to respond."