Trump hasn’t even tried to pass an immigration bill

You can’t change the Constitution with executive orders, but Trump might be able to destroy it.

President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order in the Oval Office. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Contributor via Getty Images)

American immigration law is complicated, and almost every provision of this vast corpus reflects some political compromise reached long ago, often under different circumstances. I think it’s fair to say that almost none of it is optimal.

Lenin said of the bureaucracy, “better fewer, but better.” When it comes to immigration, I don’t see it that way. We should try to be more selective, but we should also want more immigrants to come to the United States than ever. So while I agree that many of the current visa programs aren’t ideal, unlike Stephen Miller or Elon Musk, I don’t have my hair on fire about it.

What’s crazy, though, is that for how much conservatives rant and rave about immigration, the Trump administration isn’t even seeking legislative changes to American immigration law.

They’ve enacted many consequential temporary changes, but the policy pendulum is just going to keep swinging, and they seem to genuinely believe the current situation is pretty bad. It’s possible that this is just a tactical error, but I think if you pay attention to the contrast between the apocalyptic rhetoric that rightists use on immigration and their lackadaisical attitude toward the legislative process, you also see the seeds of something more insidious: immigration as a pretext for abandoning democracy.

The power of legislation

Both fans and foes of Donald Trump are sort of grimly fascinated with the ways in which he’s wielded executive power, so much so that I think the significance of actual legislation he’s signed has become underrated.