.
[T]hey have to pass criminal and security background checks, they have to pay taxes and prove their eligibility to stay.
And why, precisely, wouldn't the GOP jump at this opportunity to pass a bill and put it on Obama's desk?
What am I missing?
FACT: Obama is only granting
temporary amnesty to a finite group of parents whose children are legal U.S. citizens. Reagan did the same thing
FACT: In exchange for this temporary amnesty, these illegals have to come out of the shadows, pay taxes and render themselves
trackable by the US Government (by signing forms and handing over private information). Under the laws of Homeland Security, the high number of undocumented immigrants living in the shadows is considered a threat to national security. (The GOP knows this, and they know the president has to do something about it, and they're hoping that their inaction will force Obama's hand which will give them "red meat" to convince the American people that a democratic president cannot be trusted. This is a sign of their increasing desperation over not being able to win presidential elections).
FACT: Reagan enacted a sweeping (and much larger) overhaul that gave legal status to up to 3 million immigrants without authorization to be in the country, if they had come to the U.S. before 1982.
FACT: In February 1990, President George H.W. Bush, acting through the Immigration and Naturalization Service, established a "family fairness" in which family members living with a legalizing immigrant were granted protection from deportation and authorized to seek employment. The administration estimated up to 1.5 million people would be covered by the policy.
FACT: The GOP will not pass immigration reform because
any Republican who is part of
any legislation that Obama signs will be destroyed in the next election.
FACT: if the Democrats and Republicans work together to solve this problem, specifically if they send Obama an immigration bill that he can sign, than this would prove that government can (
in isolated circumstances) fix problems. However, we know that The GOP cannot allow this to happen because they have created a climate where they lose
politically if government solves any problems. The Republican platform is now 100% dominated by one single fact: government is broken and cannot solve any problems.
Remember: these people get elected based on the promise that they will obstruct Obama and Government from doing anything, because Government by definition is evil and must be stopped.
FACT: it is in the GOPs interest to do ABSOLUTELY nothing on this issue, thus
forcing Obama to bring these people out of the shadows so that they can be taxed and, more importantly, documented & tracked by the Department of Homeland Security. Then, when Obama does what they know he has to do, they can run commercials in 2016 about how Democratic presidents are dictators who don't respect "Borders, Language, Culture".
FACT: Game over.