A Sort-of Amnesty from a Sort-of President

The President's announcement on his misadministration's new policy on young "illegals" is a classic Hail Mary Pass. It smells of desperation. It is another ill-thought-out patch on our already chaotic immigration laws, regulations, and policies, and does nothing in the long term to deal with the ostensible problem it seeks to solve, i.e., dealing with young illegal aliens. It throws under the bus legal aliens who have played by the rules, already hard-pressed American workers looking for scarce jobs, and ongoing efforts to develop a rational approach to immigration.

It is an electoral stunt that leaves many important questions unanswered and highlights the hypocrisy of this misadministration. To start, the details are hazy.  How will Homeland decide whether an illegal meets the requirements? Presumably that involves the alien confessing to being illegal, and, in the process, likely ratting out his parents, and perhaps other relatives. What happens to illegal alien spouses of such aliens? Do they benefit from the new status as "quasi-legal?" For how long can a person remain as a "quasi-legal?"

I find particularly ironic that the illegal alien seeking the benefits of this approach will have to produce considerable documentation. Weren't we told that minorities and poor people could not produce the documentation needed to get a valid voter id? It seems they will have no problem producing documentation to affirm their "quasi-legal" status.

This is another mess by perhaps the worst President we have ever had. It is a mess created for one purpose alone, winning the election. It won't work.