Eugene Robinson: Sí, se puede. Yes, it can be done. All you need is a moral compass and a heart.

President Obama showed last week that it’s possible to find a reasonable, humane solution for at least 800,000 young people who were illegally brought into this country as children. All you need is a moral compass and a heart.

Seems to me that Obama’s unilateral decision to let these non-citizens remain here without fear of deportation should have quieted critics who bray and whine about a supposed lack of bold presidential leadership. It didn’t, of course . . .

The young men and women in question were brought here before they were old enough to have any say in the matter. They grew up in American neighborhoods, attended American schools — and, in some cases, were not even aware they were here illegally until they reached driving age and tried to apply for a license. Romney, if his primary-season rhetoric is to be believed, would offer most of them a choice between deportation and “self-deportation.”

. . . Despite what Romney claims, he knows Congress isn’t going to produce comprehensive immigration reform anytime soon. By taking executive action, Obama might or might not have broken the logjam. But at least the president gave hope and a bit of security to hundreds of thousands of young people who — whatever you think of the adults who brought them here — are utterly blameless.


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