Hillary used the opportunity of Cinco de Mayo yesterday to say, in effect, that Obama hasn’t been lawless enough in his amnesty decrees. She pledged not only to defend all of Obama’s immigration edicts but to unilaterally add another illegal amnesty, this one for the parents of “Dreamers” who received the DACA amnesty. (So much for the rationale of amnestying the kids because they didn’t do anything wrong.) She also called for amnesty for illegal aliens who’ve already been deported, but who still have relatives here. She also attacked the idea of a non-citizenship amnesty — supported by Jeb, Rubio, and Cruz — as “second-class status,” the certain rallying of every Democrat if such a measure were to be enacted, and one that will resonate with many, perhaps most, voters.
Hillary’s cynicism should be old-hat by now, but it continues to amaze me. In 2004 she said ”I am, you know, adamantly against illegal immigrants.” In 2007, she said “As president, I will not support driver’s licenses for undocumented people.” Just last summer, in response to the surge of “unaccompanied” “minors” from Central America, she said “They should be sent back as soon as it can be determined who responsible adults in their families are.” Sure, politicians are often weather vanes, but Walker, for instance, at least frankly acknowledged his change of position on immigration and offered rationale for it. In Hillary’s case, she’s always been a war with Eastasia.
This policy du jour on immigration is presumably intended to avoid a serious left-wing challenge to her nomination, given the dissatisfaction that already exists among her party’s more forthrightly socialist wing. But it will be interesting to see, once she is safely nominated, how often she brings this up while campaigning in, say, Ohio. John Hinderaker at Power Line speculates “No doubt the GOP campaigns are all filing away footage of yesterday’s event, in hopes of being able to use it against Hillary next year.” But that will depend on the candidate; if Walker actually develops a fully articulated critique of mass immigration (rather than the timid hints he’s dropped so far), Hillary’s comments might well show up in ads; in fact, he’s already critiqued her yesterday’s comments. But Rubio and Jeb essentially agree with her on all this, though they’re constrained from saying by troglodyte GOP primary voters, so don’t expect a full-court press against Hillary on immigration if either one is nominated.