Immigration deserves open hearings, and debate

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He has talked about it, and now he’s done it. After months of challenging Congress to act on illegal immigration, to pass legislation, the president has acted with the most expansive use of his presidential power.

After months of speculation, and just two weeks after a Republican election sweep, President Obama utilized an executive order to pass an immigration reform bill that will delay the deportation of up to 5 million immigrants.

His new program will be for unauthorized immigrants who are the parents of U.S. citizens. About 4 million people will be eligible for a new legal status that will defer their deportations and allow them to work legally. They must pass background checks and pay taxes, but they will receive Social Security cards.

An additional 1 million people will have some protection from deportation through other parts of the president’s plan that were not detailed in his speech.

Obama all but dared members of next year’s Republican-controlled Congress to reverse his actions.

Immigration is an important topic, and deserves to go through the legislative process. In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, Michael Gerson points out the following: “Major policy shifts, in this view, deserve legislative hearings and an open amendment process. The White House should make its views known and issue veto threats. There should be a negotiation between the House and Senate to reconcile a bill. There should be a presidential signature, or a veto and an override debate. The machinery is admittedly creaky, but it manufactures democratic legitimacy.”

Gerson is right. A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that just 38 percent of the American people support Obama’s executive action, even though there is broad support for a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants.

The American people deserve the legitimacy of the legislative process.

Some Democrats are once again distancing themselves from Obama. Sen. Joe Donnelly, Democrat of Indiana, said he didn’t believe the president should be making such a significant policy change on his own.

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