Executive action is nothing new

The possibility that President Barack Obama might issue an executive order on immigration sparks cataclysmic reactions and the vilest threats, as if thistype of action had not been taken before, much less by Republican presidents.

It is believed that all presidentssince 1956, Republicans and Democrats alike, have exercised their executive authorityto halt the deportation of a group of immigrantswho did not have their papers in order, despite already being in the United States.

Whether for political or humanitarian reasons, the presidents acted on their own, in some cases acting ahead of Congress, as in the case of the Cuban refugees, or in the face of difficulties in achieving legislative action.

That was the case of George H.W. Bush, who in 1990 ordered the stop of deportations of spouses and children of beneficiaries of Ronald Reagan’s immigration reform.

The Senate then approved the measure, but the Househeld out, as is happening now, so Bush senior took action.

No one complained then, nor were there protests when Reagan used this recourse to stop the deportation of the children of beneficiaries of the 1987 reform.

In these cases, the president at the time was not accused of acting unconstitutionally; there was no talk of impeachment or the dirty tricks muttered by Republicansin response to Obama’s expected executive action.

But this should come as no surprise. Today’s Republican Party is very different from the one that existed 20 years ago. There is a neo-Reaganism that practically turns the former president into a liberal for increasing taxes and for his humane immigration reform. That is not acknowledged, yet many conservatives ignore the past that doesn’t serve their purposes in order to keep today’s intransigent extremism alive.

Today, Republican’s lost all shame when they accused the president of wanting to “poison the well”of good will that didn’t exist before and doesn’t exist now. It is a shame that the driving force behind the opposition today is hatred of the president and resentment of immigrants. That wasn’t the case before. For example, in the Reagan yearsthat inspire such nostalgia among Republicans and conservatives