President Joe Biden is nothing but a cheap imitation of his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, as I argued earlier this month for the Washington Examiner. But Biden, like the master plagiarizer we know him to be, isn’t satisfied just to copy from Obama’s notes on racism.

He is now moving on to the world of immigration to buy votes and even create them out of nowhere.

In 2012, Obama announced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which gave a so-called “pathway to citizenship” for illegal immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as children. Obama also added his trademark handful of propagandizing rebranding, calling these children “Dreamers,” as if their illegal status were erased by some special ability to dream.

The program has been declared illegal on multiple occasions and will likely end up in the Supreme Court in the coming years.

During an election year 12 years later, Biden is trying to copy his former boss, announcing a new policy that would protect more than 500,000 illegal immigrants from deportation and hand out work visas like candy. While Obama’s policy focused on illegal immigrants who are children, Biden’s policy applies to illegal immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens and have been in the country for at least 10 years.

This is all part of a broader attempt by Biden to signal action on the border after years of a historic migrant crisis that has ravaged the country as a direct result of his administration’s decision to leave the border wide open.

Why the sudden change? Don’t forget: It’s an election year! But there’s something deeper going on here.

Biden is actively trying to force legal work status on illegal immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens. But we must ask: If they’ve been in the country for 10 years or more, why don’t they already have work permits?

After a legal marriage to a U.S. citizen, spouses are already able to apply for work authorization through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. All it should take is a few forms, a biometrics appointment, and an interview.

Why, after 10 years, aren’t these particular illegal immigrants legal?

Yes, the system is notoriously difficult and time-consuming to navigate. But given that the process can take up to two years, it’s ridiculous to imagine that anyone has been waiting 10 years for what would be the slowest government agency in the world to deliver a visa.

No, the obvious answer is that these illegal immigrants do not want to work legally. If they did, surely they would have applied to do so sometime in the last decade, like the countless spouses of American citizens who want to assimilate and contribute to the society they have joined.

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Biden is trying to provide pathways to citizenship for people who don’t want to do their part in paving that path. A true Democrat, he’s rewarding people for doing the wrong thing.

And why? Because he wants the hundreds of thousands of votes he’s hoping this policy will buy him. For these votes, he’s willing to force a shallow layer of assimilation on people who clearly do not want it.

Ian Haworth is a columnist, speaker, and podcast host. You can find him on Substack and follow him on X at @ighaworth.