It’s been a tough August recess for Sen. Marco Rubio, who irritated the Republican Party’s restive base by co-sponsoring the Senate’s immigration bill. Back home, he has to deal with (so far flimsy) threats of recall and primary challenges. As he works the conservative media circuit, he dodges questions with a theory, Either Congress passes immigration reform, or President Obama does it himself.
I believe that this president will be tempted, if nothing happens in Congress, to issue an executive order as he did for the Dream Act kids a year ago, where he basically legalizes 11 million people by the sign of a pen.That sounds an awful lot like Rubio softening up skeptical Republicans with something that couldn’t happen. But as Mark Krikorian pointed out, a few days before Rubio got on this stick, theoretically Obama could make this happen. This is not some wild Orson Scott Card theory. This was developed, but nixed, in a 2010 DHS memo.
