Immigration used to be seen as a winning issue for Democrats, with Republicans opposed to illegal immigration holding an increasingly unpopular position, coming across as heartless and demographically clueless. But now the crisis on the border as thousands of unaccompanied young children come pouring into the country with the administration seemingly bungling the problem at every level is apparently changing the political calculus. So says an analysis published in the liberal Washington Post.From Karen Tumulty and Dave Nakamura, Border crisis scrambling the politics of immigration policy – The Washington Post:
Until now, the politics of immigration have been seen as a no-lose proposition for President Obama and the Democrats. If they could get a comprehensive overhaul passed, they would win. And if Republicans blocked it, the GOP would further alienate crucial Hispanic and moderate voters.
But with the current crisis on the Southwest border, where authorities have apprehended tens of thousands of unaccompanied Central American children since October, that calculus may be shifting.
Republicans and even some Democrats have accused Obama of being insufficiently engaged in a calamity that many say he should have seen coming.
And the president’s own party is deeply divided over what must be done now — particularly on the sensitive question of deporting children who have traveled thousands of miles and turned themselves in to U.S. authorities to escape from the desperate
situations they faced in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
The emergency has also renewed questions about the administration’s competence, reminiscent of those raised during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, last year’s botched rollout of the health-care law and more recent revelations of mismanagement that jeopardized care of patients at veterans hospitals.
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