Gregory Korte

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The immigration speech President Obama gave a week before Thanksgiving was the one he was supposed to give before Labor Day.

But Obama punted until after the election. "I want to spend some time, even as we're getting all our ducks in a row for the executive action, I also want to make sure that the public understands why we're doing this," he said on Meet the Press in September.

Having spent nearly three months doing that, Obama on Thursday delivered a 15-minute speech to the American people and a 33-page legal justification memo to anyone who would challenge his use of executive actions to delay deportation for 5 million immigrants.

"The actions I'm taking are not only lawful, they're the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican president and every Democratic president for the past half century," Obama said.

In recent days, the White House has rolled out a they-did-it-too justification for executive actions, citing Eisenhower, Reagan and George H.W. Bush as precedents.

And then, for good measure, his speechwriters dusted off President George W. Bush's 2006 speech on immigration, and built Obama's remarks around it. When Bush spoke from the Oval Office — to broadcast networks that didn't give Obama the same courtesy — a Republican House had passed an immigration bill stalled in the Republican Senate.

Bush, 2006: "Some in this country argue that the solution is to deport every illegal immigrant and that any proposal short of this amounts to amnesty. I disagree."

Obama, 2014: "I know some of the critics of this action call it amnesty. Well, it's not."

Bush, 2006: "There is a rational middle ground between granting an automatic path to citizenship for every illegal immigrant, and a program of mass deportation. That middle ground recognizes that there are differences between an illegal immigrant who crossed the border recently and someone who has worked here for many years, and has a home, a family, and an otherwise clean record."

Obama, 2014: "Mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character. What I'm describing is accountability — a commonsense, middle-ground approach: If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you're a criminal, you'll be deported."

Bush, 2006: "The vast majority of illegal immigrants are decent people who work hard, support their families, practice their faith, and lead responsible lives. They are a part of American life but they are beyond the reach and protection of American law."

Obama, 2014: "They work hard, often in tough, low-paying jobs. They support their families. They worship at our churches. ... As my predecessor, President Bush, once put it: 'They are a part of American life.'"

"It really did strike me as a clearer statement of compassionate conservatism than Bush ever really was able to make," said Chad Murphy, who teaches presidential rhetoric at the University of Mary Washington. "That the speeches are so similar really confirms that for me. He's basically saying that if you work with us and start paying taxes, we welcome you. If you don't, we will punish you."

But where the two presidents largely agreed on the principles and policy, they diverged in strategy. While Bush issued a number of small-bore executive orders — to expedite citizenship for immigrants in the military, or to defer deportation for students affected by Hurricane Katrina — his speech called on Congress to act.

Obama announced much more sweeping orders, delaying deportation for millions of immigrants. He dared Congress to act.

If health care reform was the signature accomplishment of Obama's first term, he hopes immigration will be the crowning achievement of his second. Obama got his health plan passed in 2010 without a Republican vote. On immigration, he's not even giving them the chance to vote.

No doubt there will be consequences for Obama as he faces a solid Republican Congress in his last two years. Some in Congress are talking about using a spending bill to limit his executive action. Efforts to get an attorney general confirmed — much less a Supreme Court nominee — just got more difficult. And if health care is any indication, the debate could stoke election consequences for years.

At the end of their speeches, both Bush and Obama called for a more reasoned, respectful, compassionate debate on immigration. They warned against playing on worst fears. And they humanized the issue by talking about immigrants they've met. For Bush, a wounded Marine named Guadalupe Denogean. For Obama, a college student named Astrid Silva.

Bush left office with the work undone. Obama has all but ensured it will remain so for his successor, who can dust off his speech eight years from now and quote him when he said, "Are we a nation that kicks out a striving, hopeful immigrant like Astrid – or are we a nation that finds a way to welcome her in?"

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