Daily Times

President Obama, last Thursday evening, announced an executive order granting much awaited relief to millions of undocumented immigrants in the country. Those who have stayed in the US for more than five years, have US-born children, do not have any record of criminal activities and volunteer to pay taxes can come out of the shadows and apply for residency. They will be allowed to stay temporarily. They will have work permits to be legally employed. They will not be subjected to deportation. About four million undocumented immigrants, mostly Latinos, will benefit from this declaration. The president has now redeemed one of his electoral pledges.
The midterm election held on November 4, 2014, witnessed the lowest turnout of voters since 1942. Only 36 percent of the voters voted and 64 percent of the voters, being disenchanted by President Obama’s maudlin and mundane leadership, decided to abstain from voting. The absence of a vast majority of the electorate enabled the Republican nominees to get elected to the Senate and the House of Representatives. Now the Republican Party has regained control of both the Houses of Congress. Obama will have to deal with a hostile opposition party during the next two years, which has made no secret of undoing major achievements the president and his party have made during the past six years. Obama has a bumpy road ahead.
Obama, in reaction to the electoral debacle, said, “To everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you.” However, he also informed the two-thirds who chose not to cast their votes, “I hear you too.” During the re-election campaign, Obama reiterated his commitment to roll out, amongst others, Affordable Health Care (AHC) popularly known as Obama Care, in order to bring about a population of around 45 million low income uninsured under a government sponsored insurance programme. After years of preparatory work, the AHC was launched last year but soon it encountered technical problems. This was salvaged but coverage fell far below the target set by the government. Nevertheless, the programme continued and, by the end of this year, an expected 10 million people are to be brought under the AHC. The Republican Party opposed it and even tried to slash funding for the programme. Republicans have not yet reconciled to the programme and very often threaten to repeal it.
Immigration reform was an important commitment that Obama made during the re-election campaign. About 11 million illegal immigrants, mostly from Central American countries, have chosen to stay in the US for years without any valid documentation. Over four million of them have children born here and are enrolled in schools. Undocumented immigrants are confronted with the harsh reality of deportation whenever traced and about 30,000 are deported every month, leaving behind their young children. The Bush administration began constructing a huge wall along the US-Mexico border to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the US but this failed to deter the flow. The project was abandoned after spending a few billion dollars. Human traffickers found alternative routes and, in July, about 600,000 children were found sheltered in various orphanages and day care centres in the southern states. The deportation of undocumented immigrants is not without a price; families are torn apart and their children, born in the US, are supported through foster parents or put in shelters. In both cases, the government has to meet the costs. The president admitted that a mass deportation of over 11 million undocumented immigrants “would be both impossible and contrary to our character”.
The Senate passed a bill by 68 to 32 votes 17 months ago, which would have permitted the parents of US-born children to avoid deportation and upon scrutiny of good conduct would have gained citizenship. The Republicans blocked it in the House of Representatives and the speaker did not even place the bill for voting. Thus, immigration reform was put on hold indefinitely. Obama wanted to circumvent the issue through an executive order prior to the midterm elections but the Democrat nominees within Republican-dominated states suggested to postpone it until the elections were over. The president has now issued the executive order, as there is not even a remote possibility of the bill being passed by the Republican-controlled Congress in the near future. Republican stalwarts have reacted angrily and threatened to take myriad actions including moving an impeachment motion, shutting down the government and filing a lawsuit challenging the validity of the executive order in the Supreme Court (SC). The political atmosphere is set to turn tense in the coming weeks and months.
Why the Republicans are opposed to such a small concession being granted to immigrants is difficult to explain. In the past, Republican presidents issued executive orders and provided ‘relief’ to undocumented immigrants on humanitarian grounds. So what is wrong with similar action taken by the incumbent? Some people argue that the reason lies in the colour of the skin of the president. Republican stalwarts are not only conservative in their political outlook; they are not immune to racism either.
Weeks after Obama’s re-election, 23 school children were mercilessly gunned down in Connecticut by a gun-loving lunatic. There was an outcry for effective gun control and Obama pledged the same. He submitted a number of gun control measures but Congress finally rejected them. Gun control did not make headway, not because the Republicans opposed it but many Democratic senators bowed to the National Rifle Association’s (NRA’s) pressure and did not endorse Obama’s proposals. Now gun violence has become rampant and every month children are falling prey to gun-mongers within school premises. The sale of guns reportedly reached a record high during the weeks preceding the last Veterans Day.
Obama’s bid to raise the minimum wage, equal pay for women and support to small business initiatives fell through causing disappointment for the middle class. About 37 ambassadorial nominees have been awaiting confirmation from the Senate for months now while US embassies function without the ambassadors. The president nominated Loretta Lynch last week as the new Attorney General (AG). She is an experienced prosecutor. If confirmed, she will be the first African-American female AG. Republican senators demanded confirmation to be deferred till the newly elected Senate takes office in January. The existing Democrat-led Senate could arrange a confirmation hearing even before the end of November. President Obama also prefers an early confirmation but it will not happen any time soon. This speaks volumes for the disconnect between the White House and the Senate. The president’s many initiatives collapsed for lack of support from his own party.
President Obama lamented the “disquiet” in the country. This is true; unemployment has dropped to 6.5 percent, gasoline prices fell below three dollars a gallon, the housing market is turning around and the economy is recovering from the worst recession of our time. But people have higher expectations and the administration does not engage in the dissemination of success stories.
Politicians across the political divide have surrendered to vested interest groups like the NRA, Halliburton, big business and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Senators and members of the House are in receipt of huge funds from these pressure groups to defray campaign costs. Their conduct and voting pattern in Congress are very much in congruence with the declared objectives of pressure groups. National priorities have receded to the background and political parties are competing to safeguard the interests of their donors. President Obama’s inability to act on gun control, raising the minimum wage, equal pay to women, tax reforms and also on Israel’s belligerency are a corollary of the US’s political bankruptcy inflicted by pressure groups. This is contrary to the dream of the founding fathers.

The author is a former official of the United Nations