Lanhee J Chen, Columnist

Obama's Immigration Failure

By declaring he will take this executive action, the president has basically killed whatever chance there is of passing a permanent immigration solution, not just this year, but in 2015 and beyond.

July 2, 2014 at 2:44 PM UTC

By Lanhee J Chen

Lanhee Chen is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution who also teaches public policy at Stanford University. He was the policy director of Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. Chen was a senior official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush administration. He practiced business litigation with the law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and served as the Winnie Neubauer visiting fellow in health policy studies at the Heritage Foundation. Chen earned his doctorate and master's degree in political science from Harvard University, his law degree from Harvard Law School and his bachelor's degree in government from Harvard College.

By declaring he will take this executive action, Obama has basically killed whatever chance there is of passing a permanent immigration solution. — By declaring he will take this executive action, Obama has basically killed whatever chance there is of passing a permanent immigration solution.

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President Barack Obama's vow to use unilateral action to address some U.S. immigration challenges is disappointing because it is a nakedly political maneuver designed to benefit his fellow Democrats in this election cycle. It has significant, negative repercussions for policy, too.

By declaring that he will take this executive action, the president has basically killed whatever chance there is of passing a permanent immigration solution, not just this year, but in 2015 and beyond.