Breaking up what WAS known as comprehensive immigration reform

President Barack Obama is reflected in a glass table during a meeting in the Oval Office, Nov. 4, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama is reflected in a glass table during a meeting in the Oval Office, Nov. 4, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

First, there was Syria. According to the French, the Israelis and the Saudis, we should add Iran to the list.

Now, President Obama is caving on something else:

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said Tuesday he would accept a piecemeal approach to overhauling the immigration system, a move aimed at jump-starting a moribund process that reflects the realities of a divided Congress.

Mr. Obama has long favored the sweeping immigration bill that passed the Senate in June, but the House has made clear it wouldn’t consider that measure. In a wide-ranging interview before business executives at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council, the president said he is amenable to House Republicans’ taking up elements of the Senate bill, as long as the end result is the same.

“If they want to chop that thing up into five pieces, as long as all five pieces get done, I don’t care what it looks like,” Mr. Obama said. “What we don’t want to do is simply carve out one piece of it…but leave behind some of the tougher stuff that still needs to get done.”…

Yeah…. OK… so how do you make sure that, once you give your blessing to the passage of one piece, the same Congress (a body that has trouble even agreeing to avoid global economic chaos) is going to pass the other pieces?

Well, you don’t.

2 thoughts on “Breaking up what WAS known as comprehensive immigration reform

  1. Doug Ross

    Obama has no political capital to get this done now that Obamacare has been such a disaster.

    If any legislation involves allowing people who entered the country illegally to remain and continue
    to receive benefits they don’t deserve, it’s a non-starter. And not because of their skin color.

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