McCrory's baffling reaction to Obama's immigration policy
Published November 22, 2014
by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, November 21, 2014.
Reaction continues to President Obama’s executive orders on immigration that will allow five million undocumented immigrants, most of them parents of children who are American citizens, to come out of the shadows and openly participate in our society without the fear of deportation.
There will be plenty of analysis of the policy itself in the next few days and the predictable responses to it are filling up the talk shows, but Governor Pat McCrory’s statement issued Thursday night was especially interesting. Like many of McCrory’s statements, it was a bit baffling.
Here’s what he said.
“I’m already discussing with other governors a long-term solution to immigration reform as well as an appropriate legal response to this unconstitutional overreach of the White House. North Carolina is not a border state, but it’s impacted by illegal immigration. I’m extremely concerned about the potentially negative impact of this executive order on our public schools, health services and public safety.”
The claim that Obama’s executive order is unconstitutional is a talking point from almost every politician and pundit on the right and it is ridiculous even according to the right-wing legal group The Federalist Society, where experts grudgingly admit that Obama has the legal right to issue executive orders on immigration, just like President Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush did when they issued similar orders.
It’s McCrory’s statement on the effect of the new policy on North Carolina that is more puzzling. McCrory is worried about the “potentially negative impact” on our schools, health care system and public safety.
That doesn’t make any sense. The undocumented immigrants affected by the executive orders are already in North Carolina. The children are already enrolled in public schools, thank goodness, because federal law requires states to allow them to enroll.
There’s no new burden on public safety either, since the immigrants are already living in our communities. In fact, the executive orders will help law enforcement officials as undocumented residents will be much more likely to cooperate as witnesses and provide information now since they longer fear being deported.
And contrary to McCrory’s statement, the undocumented immigrants are still not eligible for most health care benefits. They will also have to undergo background checks and will pay taxes, though many of them already do.
Either McCrory doesn’t know all that or does know it and chose to issue a misleading statement anyway. It’s hard to know what is worse but neither explanation inspires much confidence in the Governor.
November 22, 2014 at 2:53 pm
Richard Bunce says:
Republicans should support this immigration reform and demonstrate to the President how changing current law is done, by actually changing the law. When the new Republican majority in Congress takes effect in January they should immediately pass an immigration bill that does exactly what the President is attempting with his executive actions. Basically unlimited work authorizations and no new path to citizenship... seems like a perfect immigration bill for Republicans. They can then declare victory on comprehensive immigration reform while clearing the deck for 2016 and at the same time instruct the President as to how law is made.
