Is there a silver lining to Tom Perez’s confirmation?

Probably not. But I’m an optimist, except when I’m not, so let’s look for a silver lining.

As Secretary of Labor, Tom Perez will have an important role in implementing comprehensive immigration reform if such legislation is enacted. But, Perez’s background in this area demonstrates that he cannot be trusted to implement immigration reform even-handedly, or even to abide by the law. As a member of the Montgomery County Council, he promoted spending taxpayer dollars on day-laborer sites to facilitate off-the-books work by illegal immigrants.

This is part of a pattern of lawlessness and cynical manipulation of the law by Perez with which our readers are familiar.

Accordingly, Perez’s confirmation provides even more reason for the House of Representatives not to trust the Obama administration to implement comprehensive immigration reform legislation in good faith compliance with the law. And without such trust, there is no reason to believe that this iteration of amnesty will differ materially from the great (but lesser) amnesty of 1986.

Such an enhanced realization by the House is the silver lining, if any, to Perez’s confirmation.

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