The White House’s immigration reform ceasefire is over.
President Barack Obama came to the Rose Garden Monday to lay out the case: he gave House Speaker John Boehner “space” to convince his members. He kept quiet about the Republicans he knew were open to an overhaul. He avoided talking about the issue much himself.
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No more.
(Also on POLITICO: Obama: GOP failed to pass a 'darn' immigration bill)
Obama was one of the few people holding onto hope that a deal could squeak through Congress by the August recess. But even that evaporated when House Republicans reacted to Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s surprise primary loss by moving firmly — and finally — away from immigration reform, and he began a crackdown on the influx of Central American children crossing the southern border, threatening to put him in opposition to immigration reform advocates.
The president’s shift to addressing immigration through executive action began last Tuesday when, according to the White House and Boehner’s office, the two leaders talked briefly before an event in the East Room honoring the golfers who won the President’s Cup. Boehner’s office says the speaker repeated his public line that people don’t trust the president to enforce written laws. The White House says Boehner told Obama that the House wouldn’t vote on reform this year.
White House aides say they then took the better part of a week to sort out the details of what Obama could and couldn’t announce right away, a debate that put the announcement smack in the middle of a day when the Supreme Court allowed a religious exemption to cut into Obamacare and the president announced his new pick for Veterans Affairs secretary and more troops going to Iraq.
(Also on POLITICO: Obama announces immigration executive action)
While the future of the nation’s immigration system remains up in the air, Obama’s line for November is settled. Immigration reform now fits snugly into the White House’s framing of the midterms as a choice between Democrats looking to get things done in people’s lives and Republicans refusing to do anything so they can score political points.
The House Republican opposition to reform “makes no sense. It’s not on the level. It’s just politics,” Obama said.
“The failure of House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, bad for our economy, and it’s bad for our future,” he added. “Drop the excuses.”
(Also on POLITICO: Trade hangs over child-migrant fight)
Obama’s announcement comes just over a year after the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration overhaul by a wide margin. The president called the time since then a “lost year” —in resources that could have gone to secure the border, in talent that could have taken root, in economic growth, in the suffering of 11 million undocumented people and the heartbreak to their families.
“That’s what this obstruction has meant over the past year,” Obama said.
Obama said he would announce a slate of new executive actions on immigration by the end of the summer, kicking off with a naturalization ceremony he’ll hold Friday morning for members of the military who’ll be among those he hosts on the South Lawn for Independence Day fireworks. He veered off his prepared remarks several times to rebut Republican criticism that he’s abusing his authority, saying at one point that if the GOP is so concerned about his unilateral actions then Congress needs to pass bills.
Inside the White House, they’re aware of the risks of turning to executive authority. Republicans will complain that he’s going too far while progressives are likely to complain that he didn’t go far enough. And whatever happens, the burden will be on Obama—a focus that the White House didn’t want, at least in the short term.
But senior White House aides are clearly excited at the chance to go after Republicans again on this.
“Political reaction from Republicans is not part of our calculation on what administrative actions we’re going to pursue,” said White House communications director Jennifer Palmieri. As for the concern that the actions may not satisfy advocates, she said, “We’ll go as far as we think is good policy and is permitted under the law.”
Ahead of the announcement, Obama dropped by a meeting of immigration advocates, who were asked on Saturday to come to the White House for a conversation with chief domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.
Obama sat down with some of the same activists in March, soon after the immigrant advocacy community had turned its fire on the president, declaring him the “deporter-in-chief.” That last session was testy and uncomfortable, as the activists repeatedly urged Obama to act on his own and Obama urged them to stay focused on pushing for legislative action.
“Give me 90 days,” Obama told the group, according to attendees of the March meeting. “We will pivot together.”
On Monday, Obama made clear to immigration advocates in their private session that he would do just that, and that he wasn’t going to let reform advocates turn him into the bad guy again.
“Everybody was very happy to hear him say that he was going to take action,” said Eliseo Medina, chairman of the Service Employees International Union’s Immigrant Justice Campaign. “We sort of expected it but it is one thing to expect and another to hear. He just said he was going to wait for a decision form his attorneys.”
Obama did not indicate what he kind of relief he would provide through his executive authority, Medina said.
“We would like him to do as much as he could to provide the most benefit to the most people,” Medina said.
The advocates appeared pleased as they filtered into the Rose Garden and stood on the sidelines. Munoz, who has clashed with the advocates while defending the president’s deportation policy over the years, embraced several of the administration’s toughest critics while waiting for Obama’s announcement.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), chairman of the immigration task force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, did not attend the meeting, but he said in a statement that the president finally heeded the calls of immigrant advocates.
“The antidote for do-nothingism is doing something and the president is doing for the American people what the Republican-controlled Congress refused to do,” Gutierrez said. “This is the president I voted for.”
The White House has very carefully kept immigration reform out of the president’s public comments, especially as he began to hit the trail in the last few weeks to road-test themes for the fall. Now, they acknowledge that with the legislative process finished, it will reappear in the president’s remarks, and head right to the top of what he says.
Reform advocates say they’ll be making their own shift to the midterm campaigns.
“The strategy changes from lobbying to voting,” Medina said.
Obama’s pledge to act on his own “will make really clear who is who and who is for it and who is against,” Medina said. “The immigrant community will be very appreciative that the president is taking action. People will look at the Republican Party and say this is not a party for me.”
Democrats are counting on that to become a winner for them, illustrating Republican obstructionism in a way that specifically lights up the president’s progressive base.
After all, it worked for the president’s re-election campaign.
“Before 2012, the president took action on Dreamers and placed the blame for not getting a broader immigration reform bill done exactly where it belonged—at the feet of Republicans—and the Latino community responded by overwhelmingly supporting the president,” said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change. “ The president’s remarks today were spot on and are laying the groundwork to set up the exact same dynamic going into 2014—the president and Democrats getting credit for what action is taken and Republicans getting blamed for inaction on the rest—as well they should.”
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