Obama did right thing on immigration

It is clear that the illegal immigration issue in this country is a political football which enables both parties to score points with their constituents but not an issue to be solved.

The Democrats could have ended the issue when they held both the House and the Senate and passed Obamacare (an example of Chicago politics at its most clearly defined). The Republicans pulled off the table a piece of legislation in the last two years that would have addressed the issue and provided beefed-up security at the border.

Both parties failed to put teeth in the last piece of legislation that passed, and the result is a present situation of 11 million undocumented persons.

I may have agreed with the president in one other thing in his six years of rule, but I think his action is to be applauded. This puts the onus back where it belongs: on our Congress.

His executive order did give a three-year reprieve on approximately 5 million people from being deported, but it did not give permanent citizenship or permanent-resident green card status to them.

It did not allow them to use social services. There are other things it did not do.

The point is that there is a three-year window that the incoming Congress can show it has the political will to be statesmen. Or, continue to be politicians - and football players.

All the political verbiage denouncing his action, is meant to take away from the responsibility of the persons needing to do their job.

Mike Klestinski

Libertyville