The air is charged. Distant rumblings grow louder. President Obama is promising to do by executive order what Congress has not done: allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain in this country. And if media accounts forecasting the reaction to such a move are accurate, a political firestorm is heading our way, which could include another government shutdown and calls for impeachment hearings — this time from responsible quarters.Perhaps the president will act less precipitously than expected, disappointing immigration advocates and businesses that rely on immigrant labor, but averting a constitutional crisis. And were he to exercise prudence, millions...

Extensive media coverage of unaccompanied Central American children pouring across Mexico’s border into the United States has, unsurprisingly, been followed by political attention to the problem. Politicians like Texas Gov. Rick Perry R have reduced the focus to a single strip of land in south Texas and threatened to deploy the National Guard at a cost of $12 million a month to taxpayers; communities from California to Massachusetts have responded with flag-waving protests to emotional pleas for assistance; Central American diplomats have traveled to Washington to ask for help. America is again witnessing a drama involving familiar players and...

As the costs of higher education continue to reach new heights, access to in-state tuition for public universities and colleges is often the determining factor in whether students will be able to continue their education beyond high school. Despite having grown up and been residents of states often longer than the typical residency requirements, undocumented immigrant youth, also known as DREAMers–named after the Senate’s DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act–have historically been excluded from this critical state benefit. But this is changing.The trend toward restricting admission to public colleges or denying in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants...