“Obama braces for immigration battle with the GOP.” The Washington Post [Washington] 16 December 2014, Politics. Web. December 16 2014.
- Summary
In the Washington Post “Obama braces for immigration battle with the GOP,” the writer David Nakamura, describes the president’s political consequences for invoking his executive powers to protect illegal immigrants from deportation. In fact, this step in his administrative capacities carries with a myriad of factors most of which are politically engineered. The president is now in battle with the Republicans as he struggles to garner support against the anticipated attack on his actions amidst Latinos, which are likely to fuel renewed pressure on him to take further action in his capacity and in terms of legislation to protect illegal immigrants to a greater degree.
This comes after his hardcore policy of deporting illegal immigrants in the last six years of his term as president. It is this shift in policy which envelopes his decision to resolve to protect up to four million undocumented immigrants from deportation that he is employing to repair a damaged constituency of his political support.
President Obama is tactfully preparing for the attack on his action to employ executive powers, which the republics oppose, hence the much-needed support from the populace who benefit from this new policy. Apart from immigration, the president is also counting on their support to establish the healthcare law known as Obama care, which has been facing quite an array of challenges. It is critical for him in both cases, since the key strategy involves the need to enroll as many people in it in order to achieve adequate political support for it to be implemented fully. The president’s response to both issues has come amid criticism for delaying a solution to the immigration problem, which for years has destroyed many Hispanic families. In his endeavor to balance the burden he seek to rewrite his legacy in this way, but still faces quite a fair deal of pressure to be inclusive of the illegal immigrants who have not been included in his new policy passed on the executive actions.
- Opinion
Personally, I am in support of the president’s intervention on this grave issue, which for many years has gone unresolved apart from the limiting and inconclusive legislation, which complicate the life of illegal immigrants. It is obvious that illegal immigrants contribute to the country’s economy and affect the cost of labor and trends in the job market as well. As statistics from several decades ago indicate, the population of illegal immigrants has been as high as two million accounting for documenting deportations alone. This is a significant number in the country’s consumer base and it is understood that illegal immigrants are job seekers and a source of cheap labor sector of the economy such as agriculture. This has a direct impact on the sustainability of such industries and their markets as they reduce the cost of production. However, the president’s decision to act from the dimension of his executive power to raise doubt about his commitment since his aim is technically a political issue. For instance, the executive action to shield the four million illegal immigrants is quite discriminating as the Latinos point and there is still pressure coming from the Hispanic populace from the left out parties to be included in the protection of illegal immigrants.
- Analysis
The article indirectly related to economic principles in a couple of ways. There is a direct link between labor, cost of production and consumption. There is a huge population of illegal immigrants whose documented could result to increased labor supply, a lower cost of production, and a higher rate of domestic consumption. In fact, the economy does better with a higher rate of domestic consumption as opposed to competing for markets overseas, which is rather a contributing factor to increased cost of production since more dynamic forms of transportation are needed as well as marketing strategies to win a certain market share. In addition, a greater domestic consumption leads to increased markets and lead to higher production with an element of competition, which lowers prices due to high production hence a direct impact on the cost of living. Simply, the more labor force a country has, the higher its production and the lower its cost of production in distinct parts of its economy.
The decision by the president to shield the four million illegal immigrants has a direct impact on the economy given that they will attain citizenship and necessary documents such as social security numbers, which will make them flexible to join and contribute to the economy by either seeking employment or venturing in small and medium enterprises. Consequently, they will add to the government tax revenue. The population of undocumented immigrants is no doubt beyond the approximates in government records since the immigration authorities are limited by financial constraints in year-to-year budgets. It is obvious that the funds, human labor, and resources spent on tracking down illegal immigrants, deporting them is an absurd waste of hard-earned tax money from citizens of our noble country that could be spent on strengthening the economy through subsidy, and tax breaks for continued prosperity.
