President Obama's grant of a guarantee against deportation to a large class of unauthorized immigrants is a win-lose. The executive order is a win because its substance improves on a callous policy. As many as 4.3 million humans will now find their lives meaningfully improved with no direct harm done to anyone else. And indirect costs—like inspiring others to make a very dangerous journey north in hopes of benefitting from a similar deal—seem unlikely to outweigh the benefits. (Your assessments may vary.)
The policy is a loss because democracy suffers when a politician says that the law forbids him from doing something, is reelected, and then takes the ostensibly illegal course he'd disavowed. It doesn't help when his logic is, I had to do it, the people's representatives wouldn't. I hope I'm wrong in suspecting that this will radicalize restrictionist groups. It is certainly an advance that is vulnerable to reversal in two years when another president takes office—and may make congressional compromise on immigration harder to achieve, though maybe not. It isn't as if the legislature was showing any urgency in passing an immigration-reform bill, despite the fact that every month of delay caused countless millions needless suffering.
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