Obama Readies Executive Order...
WH planning immigration executive order by "summer's end" reports W. Post: "Obama aides have discussed a range of options that could provide legal protections and work permits to a significant portion of the nation’s more than 11 million undocumented residents, said Democratic lawmakers and immigrant advocates who have met recently with White House officials. Ideas under consideration could include temporary relief for law-abiding undocumented immigrants who are closely related to U.S. citizens or those who have lived in the country a certain number of years — a population that advocates say could reach as high as 5 million."
WH spokesperson Dan Pfieffer downplays report on ABC's This Week: " I think the reports you're seeing are uniformed speculation ... because the president has asked the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to present him with recommendations by the end of the summer. They have not done that yet ... But because of Congress's failure to fix the immigration system and to pass the supplemental appropriations ... we need to address the situation both on the border and through our immigration system. So he's going to do what he can, but under the confines of the law."
...While GOP Threatens Impeachment
GOP Rep. Steve King threatens impeachment. The Hill: "Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Sunday that Republicans should take a 'serious look' at impeaching President Obama if he uses executive action to expand deferrals for illegal immigrants. 'I think Congress has to sit down and have a serious look at the rest of this Constitution and that includes that "I" word that we don't want to say,' King said in an interview on 'Fox News Sunday.' ... 'If that’s not enough to bring that about, then I don’t know what would be.'"
"Obama Is Legally Allowed to Enforce—or Not Enforce—the Law" notes TNR's Eric Posner: "Millions of illegal immigrants have lived in the United States for decades, under a semi-official policy that allows them to stay as long as they don’t commit serious crimes—and that, in many cases, allows them to obtain drivers’ licenses. The main effect of Obama's proposal would be to officially recognize current practice ... The executive branch spends a lot of time not enforcing laws. Congress has illegalized an enormous amount of activity without giving the president the resources to enforce the laws, so the executive has no choice but to make a list of priorities and devote its attention to law violations that, in its opinion, are the most serious. Thus, the IRS doesn’t audit paupers very often. The Justice Department ignores a lot of anticompetitive behavior that might raise prices a bit but not much. The DEA focuses on criminal syndicates rather than ordinary drug users, although both violate federal law. And so on."
Where did the Minutemen go? Mother Jones: "During the past four years, the Minuteman groups that defined conservative immigration policy during the mid- to late-2000s have mostly self-destructed—sometimes spectacularly so. Founding Minuteman leaders are in prison, facing criminal charges, dead, or sidelined ... Meanwhile, the politicians who once embraced vigilante activities along the border have begun to drift away."
Breakfast Sides
NYT's Paul Krugman praises Obama's Wall Street reform: "The Dodd-Frank reform bill has, if anything, received even worse press than Obamacare ... But also like Obamacare, financial reform is working a lot better than anyone listening to the news media would imagine ... rescues in times of crisis can give large financial players an unfair advantage: They can borrow cheaply in normal times, because everyone knows that they are 'too big to fail' ... a new study from the Government Accountability Office shows that while large banks were able to borrow more cheaply than small banks before financial reform passed, that advantage has now essentially disappeared."
We should fight poverty with cash transfers, says The Week's Ryan Cooper: "International comparisons between institutional frameworks show that simple, brute-force transfer schemes of cash are by far the most effective method. Transfers will attack transitory poverty and long-lasting poverty. The idea that a fresh bunch of paternalistic case managers are going to make any serious dent in poverty is deeply implausible."
