The blogosphere is burning this morning with discussions of a memorandum circulated within the U.S.  Citizenship and Immigration Services bureau which discusses “Administrative Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”

In English, that means amnesty for illegal aliens delivered by presidential fiat.

National Review describes the memo:

According to an internal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services memo going the rounds of Capitol Hill and obtained by National Review, the agency is considering ways in which it could enact “meaningful immigration reform absent legislative action” — that is, without the consent of the American people through a vote in Congress…

Perhaps the most egregious suggestion is to “Increase the Use of Deferred Action.” “Deferred action,” as the memo defines it, “is an exercise of prosecutorial discretion not to pursue removal from the U.S. of a particular individual for a specific period of time.” For example, after Hurricane Katrina, the government decided not to remove illegal immigrants who’d been affected by the disaster.

The memo claims that there are no limits to USCIS’s ability to use deferred action, but warns that using this power indiscriminately would be “controversial, not to mention expensive.” The memo suggests using deferred action to exempt “particular groups” from removal — such as the illegal-immigrant high-school graduates who would fall under the DREAM Act (a measure that has been shot down repeatedly in Congress). The memo claims that the DREAM Act would cover “an estimated 50,000” individuals, though as many as 65,000 illegal immigrants graduate high school every year in the U.S.

There are two evident underlying factors here.

First is something which is a typical Obama pattern – total disregard for checks and balances, or probably more to the point the rule of law. We saw it with the administration’s misappropriation of TARP funds to bail out the auto industry (more specifically, the UAW), we saw it with the use of reconciliation to pass Obamacare, we saw it with the EPA moving to regulate carbon dioxide when it became obvious a Cap and Trade bill wouldn’t pass the Senate, we saw it with the president’s disregarding two different federal courts which found his moratorium on deepwater drilling arbitrary and capricious and now we see it in this end run.

Second is the full-court press Obama has made in an attempt to corral the Hispanic vote in a similar manner that prior Democrat administrations roped African Americans to their side in a bloc. Two levels of this move are evident; first, it’s clear the administration believes that by extending amnesty in copious amounts to illegals it will be seen as the defender of the Hispanic community – with the additional benefit of painting its opponents as racist, which is quite clearly the tactic of choice in advance of the November mid-terms. And at a deeper level, Obama is attempting to leverage amnesty into a path to citizenship for the 10-18 million illegals in the country so as to alter the composition of the American electorate.

That last is a long-term strategy which the Democrats believe will cement them as a governing majority party in the future and give them a mandate to drive the country further left than they’ve already done. If they’re successful, of course, it won’t matter that the current electorate is overwhelmingly opposed to amnesty for illegals or the porous border we have. Add 18 million Democrat voters, the idea goes, and supplement that with an open door to add as many more as you need, and you’ll never lose an election again.

At HotAir, Allahpundit opines that this will never happen because it’s political suicide. He might be right. But what we’ve seen from this administration is “The Audacity Of Hope” time and time again; when Obama wants something, he does it whether the American people are disgusted by it or not. This is no more an outrage than screwing the bondholders of GM and Chrysler, or demonizing doctors, or suing Arizona over its attempts to see federal law enforced. He’s done all of the above.

The thought here is that people are still making the mistake of seeing Obama in conventional political terms. There is nothing conventional about this man or his administration and never has been. While it is good that the amnesty memo has come to light, and while it’s helpful that political damage will certainly ensue, and while the Democrats are likely to lose several congressional seats in border states and elsewhere as a direct result of disclosures like this one, none of that means Obama won’t go through with imposing amnesty by executive order.