De facto immigration reform

President Barack Obama poked a political hornets' nest Thursday with the announcement that some illegal immigrants facing deportation could be allowed to remain in the United States.

Under the new policy, immigration officials will review the cases of 300,000 people in deportation proceedings and focus on expelling those who've committed crimes or pose a threat to public safety. Others, such as veterans, caregivers, and undocumented spouses of U.S. service members, will be evaluated case by case and some will be allowed to stay. The new rules create room for pragmatic discretion that will help ensure limited enforcement resources are directed where they will do the most good.

And it should mitigate one of the harshest elements of current immigration policy by allowing some people brought here illegally as children to stay in the country. People brought here by their parents didn't willfully cross the border illegally. They shouldn't be forced to leave the only home many have ever known.

Increased flexibility is good policy, but it's also the product of a transparent political calculation. Obama has been taking fire from Hispanics and others for failing to deliver on his 2008 campaign promise of immigration reform. Their disenchantment has been stoked by administration initiatives that heightened border security and workplace enforcement and increased deportations. That hasn't gone over well with many who favor reform, even though demonstrating such resolve is necessary to win wider congressional support for that comprehensive reform.

It also hasn't helped that Obama has failed to win congressional approval of the Dream Act, which would authorize legal status for people brought here illegally as children who subsequently go to college or serve in the U.S. military. Or that Obama's Secure Communities Program, which was supposed to deport serious criminals, has snared many people who violated no criminal laws.

The policy announced last week should blunt that disappointment and improve Obama's standing with Hispanic voters. And like anything involving illegal immigration, or the 2012 election, it was immediately attacked. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, characterized the change as backdoor amnesty, a sentiment likely shared by many in the House and Senate. And some members of Congress won't like that Obama pulled an end-run around that institution by putting the new policy in place administratively. Unfortunately, avoiding Congress is the only way to get anything done on immigration these days.

The nation needs a more workable approach to the problem, one that combines tighter border security and workplace enforcement with a route to legalization for the 11 million people here illegally and a more efficient system of legal immigration that meets the needs of employers. That sort of solution has become politically toxic in recent years, but America has to reach some consensus on how to proceed.

Until that happens, controversial, incremental change is all we're going to get.