Obama’s Lawless, Job-Killing Immigration Policy
Federal law does not allow the president to exclude broad classes of aliens from the immigration laws, just as it does not allow the president to exclude broad classes of people from the tax laws. Kings and czars held the power to exempt favored classes from the law. Presidents do not.
The old version of deferred action applies to aliens who have been placed in immigration proceedings to be removed. The Obama version is much broader and is available to immigrants who have never been in proceedings. In other words, Obama is extending the benefit to people who haven’t even been caught yet and sent into proceedings. This pulls the rug out from law enforcement officials.
No wonder law enforcement officials are fighting back. The program is so radical and lawless that career employees of DHS recently sued DHS Secretary Napolitano. They rightfully argue that the new policy forces them to exceed their authority and violate immigration law or face insubordination charges from their superiors if they do not. The administration claims it is simply giving its employees prosecutorial discretion. Prosecutorial discretion is the province of prosecutors, not Border Patrol agents. As the president of the ICE union explained, “The administration’s new policies do not provide officers new options or increased flexibility, but instead orders officers not to enforce laws.”
This must be the change we heard so much about in 2008.
Add to this toxic mix the launch of the bus tour by open-borders radicals — “No Papers, No Fear.” Their website features names and photos of people who are in the United States illegally and now have nothing to fear and no intention of leaving. Miguel Guerra is one. “We’re no longer afraid to say we are undocumented,” Guerra declared.
And if any law-abiding citizens raise any questions about it, beware: the bus tour is “holding rallies and confronting anti-Latino prejudice along the way.”
There was a time in America where nearly all of us believed in the rule of law. Law was an agreed-upon set of norms that both Democrats and Republicans accepted as standards of behavior. America was founded on this principle not because it was easy, but because the alternative was worse. History provides examples of countries where lawlessness, especially lawlessness endorsed by the powerful, leads to outcomes none of us would want, not even Miguel Guerra. The job-killing policies of the Obama years are the most visible tragedy of the lost hope of 2008. But the corrosion of the rule of law by these educated people in power to satisfy a lawless demographic may be the hardest to reverse.
Those sly illegal Canadians really have the President’s ear on this one!
The BLT Marxist needs more voters for more Marxism. Plus, facts on the ground have to continue to change for a North American Union, or region 1 of the WTO.
Those against such an agenda will be called haters, and racists.
It’s worse than that, Leatherneck. The Dems can’t win without the “Hispanic vote” so they have caved to the most irredentist and cultural nationalist elements of the electorate. I wrote about the inroads already made on the popular show Glee here: http://clarespark.com/2012/02/09/glee-goes-la-raza/. But dig: Rosie Castro, mother of Julian Castro (rising star of Dems) founded La Raza. And it is no mainstream organization.
Im retired now and dont work,,,for anyone else.I ride my bicycle around to do my business on different streets most mornings,a landlord in a poor neighborhood. People with gray pasts,illegal immigrants and women married to the state live here. Most of work is done by Guatemalans living in crowded apartments.Quietly. Here the Americans{black and white}walk in circles,sell food stamps,do drugs and wait for a check.I love history,its all about the future and the Northern Boarder of Rome comes to mind.Under constant invasion the citizens,those who recieved land after serving in the army and the farmers, were feeling something,the lowering of the barometric pressure just before a hurricane arrives.
This is something liberals never understand: immigration, legal or otherwise, costs Americans jobs. But let’s just look at the lower end of the spectrum, the effect on the poor the liberals claim to love so much. Illegal immigrants are wiling to work a job for less than most Americans will and won’t demand benefits. So the American gets fired in place of the illegal or other immigrant. As the numbers of illegals build up, the number of unskilled or low skilled Americans losing jobs and unable to find new ones rises. If the illegals, who are operating outside the law, want more money, they can be fired and replaced with new ones. This all has a downward pressure on wages at the bottom. And once one company starts using immigrants, others follow. Around here many and varied businesses like roofers, tree surgeons, etc. were all American maybe 10 years ago. Today many are immigrant save for the owners.
The rich liberals in their elite, sounding board communities never seem to understand this. Their hearts seem to bleed more for the immigrants, many of whom are fleeing countries which are crime ridden economic failures because of the same policies US liberals are pushing, than Americans who are losing jobs to them or to the liberal’s insane policies. It’s all about feeling good, like they are “making a difference,” than doing what is actually best.
Where I live, even the owners of the businesses are document challenged. All citizens have given up trying to make a living in the landscaping or home maintenance business. None of these “business owners” have a business license or bonded workers. None pay business taxes, payroll taxes, and likely even income taxes because they effectively do not exist. In fact I am now finding that many are now going door-to-door trying to solicit business and they don’t even speak English. How they think they are going to build a business when they cannot even communicate with their customers is a mystery. Perhaps it is because they know shortly we will have no choice but to learn Spanish or roof our own homes.
There are a few outfits like that around here but not many. What we have more trouble with are fly by nights that come in, get contracts and either do really bad work or no work at all and run. That’s why I tell people never to pay anyone up front and if they insist on money up front, drop them and find someone else. Fortunately there are also a couple of all American firms that I have used and trust. I just wonder how much longer they are going to be able to hold out.
Illegal immigrants are AWESOME.
A typical illegal immigrant has endured border crossings in the desert, been held captive by smugglers, walked hundreds of miles and may be sending money home that keeps his or her family alive. All just to wash dishes/mow lawns/construction etc. for minimum wage.
How can a low skilled American worker compete with that? Most illegals if born here, would not be dishwashers, they would be far higher on the job ladder.
Back in college I waited tables, every two weeks the dishwasher would change. The dishwashers were all from the Mass. penal system and this was their first job out of prison. That does not happen today, the illegal is a better employee, but now we have no jobs for Ex-Cons, (or future Rock Stars, Teenagers, heavy drinkers, college students etc.) to step up from or fall back to.
If you were a business owner and faced no penalty for hiring an illegal and that person was a better employee who worked for less what would you do?
Our government needs to lower its sights and raise its aim…
“The job-killing policies of the Obama years are the most visible tragedy of the lost hope of 2008. But the corrosion of the rule of law by these educated people in power to satisfy a lawless demographic may be the hardest to reverse.”
Just so. The assault on the very foundations of America by this Administration is on several fronts; but this is perhaps the most insidious. And the sad part is, most people who should know better just don’t give a damn. I’d be delighted if someone could point me to an honorable liberal pundit who has expressed shock and outrage at this blatantly illegal, blatantly unconstitutional move. So far, I’ve seen none.
1. Papers. There is no saying that this program will survive the next election. But at least for two years, it allows those people who are approved to get a legal driver’s license in most states and thereby INSURANCE. What do you want from someone who looks and talks like an American born person in many cases: INSURANCE on the road, or NO INSURANCE. My wife is an immigration paralegal for a nationally known immigration attorney and I was an immigrant (now citizen) who waited 25 years to be in a position to come in legally from Canada on an immigrant track. Don’t tell me I don’t know what I am talking about.
RE: #4. “This is something liberals never understand: immigration, legal or otherwise, costs Americans jobs.” Patent rubbish. Founder of Paypal, SpaceX — immigrant. Founders of Google — immigrant. Writer of this post who employs in ALL CASES I-9 certifiable workers: IMMIGRANT. Many of the people for whom my wife processes papers are the best of the best academically from their countries. Some have “national interest” letters from high ranking federal government officials. After educating them in post graduate degrees at our best universities, do you want them to go back to countries that in some cases are hostile to the USA, or do you want them to integrate into America? You be the immigration judge. When the US educational system is turning out all of the engineers and technologiest required even in today’s lagging economy I will accept this argument. I know this day will never come.
RE: Mr. Adams statement: “The rules don’t even force the illegal aliens to actually prove in an immigration court that this is the case in some instances.” Mr. Adams: I agree with you on many things, but not this. Your statement is misleading by reason of omission. The standards of the United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) needed to sniff out immigration fraud or ineligibility is merely suspicion, not evidence as in a court. So they routinely “RFE” (Request for Further Evidence) or deny based on little or no evidence. A quick check with any of your colleagues in the immigration bar or a perusal of the AILA (American Immigration Lawyers Association) website confirms my words. The allegation of widespread fraud is simply without support, mirroring the scandal mongering of groups like the Dustin Inman Society.
YOUR BASIC PREMISES: I won’t argue with you about the issues of constitutional law raised in your article. But I will debate with you the explicit premises that this action somehow automatically leads to a PERMANENT status (permission to do a certain series of lawful acts in the USA, like working legally forever). It does not. Nor is this an IMMIGRATION TRACK, leading to naturalization. There is no “green card” attached to this status nor any process for obtaining one. Thereby the “DREAM ACT” references are deliberately misleading.
These folks could have their status denied after two years. The law could be changed to permit them a green card but only by Act of Congress. They could be kept in a condition of permanent “in betweeness” in the shades of various immigration statuses forever.
In the meantime, I’ll drive safer in knowing that the person who may hit me has a higher probability of having auto insurance and a lower probability of fleeing the scene.
Unless you have a crystal ball, no one can read the political optics of the future situation to know what will happen.
““The rules don’t even force the illegal aliens to actually prove in an immigration court that this is the case in some instances.” Mr. Adams: I agree with you on many things, but not this.”
You are wrong about this. I have a DHS internal memo that directly contradicts you plus sourcing within DHS that contradicts you. Aliens captured within a certain distance of the border are released upon the ORAL statement of the alien that he or she would qualify for deferred action. That is a fact. That is happening. You are incorrect.
“But I will debate with you the explicit premises that this action somehow automatically leads to a PERMANENT status ”
Never said anything of the sort. In fact I will say something expllict here: it would NOT lead to permanent status. But if the policy remains in place, that is a distinction without a difference. Sort of like permo-TPS that has developed out of the Central American earthquakes, the effects of which have long since ended. You are familiar with that policy I presume. That doesn’t grant “permanent status” either, but share what the difference is?
OK — points to you on the first item, and I agree with you that internal policy verified by your documents is reprehensible. I am the loudest to argue against blanket amnesty and in favor of tight border controls for illegal entrants who don’t pass through a border control checkpoint. If I had overstayed on a tourist trip from Canada in the late 1970′s, I might have been amnestied in 1986! My life would have been different. But I was a good boy who always went back north when my tourist time or money ran out. I won the grand prize when I was approved for naturalization on the first day that I became legally eligible.
With respect to the second point, we both know the difference. Citizenship: re-entry to the US cannot be denied, right to vote, be called to a jury, second amendment rights concerning guns, and most of all, freedom from the requirement to carry federal ID — i.e. proof of lawful status within the country, the green card, work authorization (EAD) or similar whenever a policeman asks “Papers please.” Having traveled in the former USSR, I can tell you this is a big one! Oh yes….since all green cards expire, a person without citizenship can never rest assured that they are not deportable.
Since everyone who is not a citizen is now subject to being placed into deportation for two misdemeanors…well, it behooves all eligible green card holders to naturalize immediately. My wife sees many elderly people coming in to naturalize after 30 or 40 years in the US on “permanent resident” (green card) status.
And since I travel quite a bit within the US by road, I do carry a federally issued passport card in my wallet as “proof of status” just in case some twit brain law officer in a one horse cow town decides she doesn’t like my attitude, english accent or something else when she pulls me over for not going at 10 mph down the one street with two cars on it and throws me into “immigration hold” (Calling the feds to verify status).
I didn’t directly answer your question about the TPS.
At my naturalization ceremony I sat next to and conversed in French with a gentleman originally from HAITI who first came here in 1980 on TPS. He has several American born kids, an American wife and has worked and paid his taxes like any other person for over 30 years without enjoying the benefits of US citizenship.
I had chosen NOT to come to the USA about the same time: the best advice I didn’t take was given to me by an American in Toronto in the mid 1970′s who said: “Go to the USA as a student”. I would have had a different, and I believe much better life.
My late father’s US immigration “number” came up in the late 1940′s, (he was in England at the time). He had applied in the mid 1930′s. The lineup had considerably shortened because many of the applicants, like him, European Jews, had gone up in smoke through the chimneys of the crematoria. Neither the USA, nor Canada, one of whose senior policy makers famously stated “NONE is too many” about Jewish emergency immigration, what is now known as Temporary Permanent Status, TPS in the USA, had the humanity to open the gates.
My own opinion is that the people who were brought here as children by parents’ who crossed the border as fence jumpers, look, talk and have been educated as Americans. They are innocents who should not be punished.
Their parents however should be deported, in which case the visa law mandates (I believe) a lifetime ban on re-entry. Or they can leave voluntarily and apply for immigration benefit through the kids. As the retrogression lines for Mexico is long…..
There are times, Mr. Adams, when the Letter of the Law must be tempered with Humility & Wisdom. Fortunately, we live in a country where the political processes–slow and awkward as they are–produce this result.
The US government has been issuing over 1M green cards each year, over 110K H-1B guest-work visas, plus H-2B, E-3, L, J… visas which authorize foreign citizens to work in the USA. They’ve run zero background investigations on applicants.
Both Dems and Reps (and the back-stabbing IEEE) have supported a move to issue an unlimited number of green cards to the unlimited numbers of foreign students who graduate from US universities. If Faisal Shahzad is any indication the standards for getting a student visa are extremely low. Some US colleges and universities have adopted a policy of giving foreign students preference over in-state students in admissions.
Meanwhile, nearly 2 million US citizen STEM (science, tech, engineering, math, computer) professionals are not employed to do STEM work. We’ve been turning out about 3 times as many new STEM grads as have been able to get work in STEM fields, and the percentages worsen as time passes since earning a degree. The story is similar for construction workers, meat-packing workers, fishery workers — able and willing US citizens are being intentionally discriminated against. As immigration lawyer Larry Lebowitz of Cohen and Grigsby said: “And our goal is clearly NOT to find a qualified and interested U.S. worker.”, and the immigration lawyer association supported that stand.
And what percentage of the over 8,600 miles of US land borders have been fenced? What percentage is being patrolled by fully-armed defense personnel authorized to arrest or repel invaders?
Our government, and most especially DHS, needs to raise its standards and reduce numbers of invaders, visas issued, and visa over-stayers.
“The US government has been issuing over 1M green cards each year, over 110K H-1B guest-work visas, plus H-2B, E-3, L, J… visas which authorize foreign citizens to work in the USA. They’ve run zero background investigations on applicants.”
This statement is absolutely misleading and total rubbish. Take it from a naturalized US citizen who began the immigration process in fall 2006.
I obtained several police reports and finger print checks in my country of origin prior to visa issuance by the Department of State. I contributed numerous biometric samples & fingerprints to my federal government record. I have had numerous criminal record checks run after I entered the USA at each stage of the immigration process & naturalization to satisfy requirements of the United States Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS) involving several “alphabet soup” agencies who must sign off on any alien’s applications. I was medically checked by three US government physicians at my sole expense.
Rest assured that no expense has been spared to assure the US taxpayer that this new voter and citizen is not an HIV infected syphlitic drug user with a felonius record and no innoculations for mumps, measles and the pox.
The USA has too many “natural born” citizens who meet these criteria to bother importing any.
FYI: USCIS was still asking “verifying questions” 15 minutes prior to the naturalization ceremony of each and every one of the 200 US citizen aspirants in attendance at their oath ceremony.
Sir: The VISA is like the ticket to the fairground. It lets you into the amusement park, but of itself doesn’t confer any immigration benefit. Its issued by the Department of State, not by Department of Homeland Security. The dual system here is part of the complicated US system of checks and balances.
To do anything in the USA requires a status. The HIGHEST status is “natural born US citizen” which allows you to hold the offices of President and Vice-President, something naturalized citizens cannot aspire to. The LOWEST status is tourist (B status). This allows you to travel within the US for a specified period of time and then you must leave, otherwise you have overstayed your status.
There is no such thing as overstaying a visa. The visa can expire, but you will not be in the USA when it does as the visa is the admission ticket, NOT the ticket to that lets you ride the ferris wheel inside the grounds of the fair.
Fence jumpers—illegal aliens who do not pass through a border checkpoint–have NO STATUS in the USA. Folks who came in on a VALID VISA — admission ticket — can find themselves “out of status” for numerous reasons, some of which are directly attributable to slow processing by the United States Customs and Immigration division of the Department of Homeland Security for further immigration benefits. There are procedures to deal with this problem.
One assumes that folks who entered through a border gate HAVE CLEAN CRIMINAL RECORDS otherwise they would not have been issued a visa by the Department of State or permitted entry by Customs and Border Protection division of the Department of Homeland Security, the folks who man the gates. All officers have the right to deny anyone entry, EVEN A GREEN CARD HOLDER. Only US citizens are automatically permitted to re-enter the USA.
Its the fence jumpers whom I fear and on whom the rightful anger of the posters here should be focused upon.
The US, like the EU, is run by leftists who want to destroy freedom and institute dictators. The leftist idea is to flood each country with people who are used to dictatorship and corruption in order to dilute the numbers of people who love freedom and the rule of law.
1.7M cases of voter fraud. Now these illegal aliens, who are de facto felons, can get drivers licenses and coupled with the absence of voter id regulations, commit voter fraud on a vast scale.
I always said, Obama is just GWB with a awesome tan :^(
I still think the cleanest test case would be if Obama were to drive a bus full of illegal aliens across the CA-AZ border and the AZ forces try to block the entry of anyone without proper ID. It remains a good test even after Obama’s recent executive order admitting no more than his own illegal/voidable refusal to enforce the law.
Could Obama get a court order and the aid of the National Guard to forceably insert the illegal aliens, anonymously, into AZ without being checked in any way? That is, can he have federal forces point guns at AZ forces, in something akin to a battle in a hot war? A federal court case is a prelude, a pre-authorization, for just such an act of war on the sovereignty of a state.
(Still, the citizens of the 6 northern most Mexican states could peacefully petition Congress to become one or more new states in the US. The “dream act” folks could move there and legally spearhead such a statehood petition. 56states.us)
Obama’s clear objective is to create a dependent class, funded by the central government directly or indirectly through the big city Democrat machine. Everything in his welfare state is designed to keep people in place instead of moving to where work and opportunity can be found. The functioning family is being broken apart as well. Individuals are easier to control.
Here is a precis of an NYT editorial today, published in their own on line blog
” The Better Economic Question
It’s not just whether voters are better off than they were four years ago. They are. Voters should be asking how to ensure financial security.”
In a Republic, the government should not be ensuring financial security. It should be assuring opportunity for all on fifty different playing fields, each of which has different natural and other resources. That is what States in our Republic are separately designed to do
The Presidents methodology is to rule the nation from Washington and make the fifty subservient (now) provinces come to the Central government hat in hand, tugging on the forelock
Families are bypassed. even though the functioning family is the most efficient level of governance and the only one which has the obligation to inculcate that moral code which will enable its members to exist and prosper in a civilized society.
Local governments will receive the “King’s shilling.” to follow more and more directives from central authority in exchange for not having to locally levy an appropriate tax burden on their people.
An unholy triumvirate now runs things badly enough. Lobbyists pay the cost of reelection. The legislature stays in place for the most part with a cushy pension system, healthcare included. Unelected mandarins run the government from day to day, moving from committee staff to personal staff, to the executive department, in a perpetual dance and reqarded by a position with a lobbying firm to take advantage of their knowledge or contacts.
The solution is so obvious and so close. Keep remembering that Obama was elected by only 30% of registered voters. There was a 58% turnout and of the people who actually voted, 52% voted for Obama. Multiply 0.58 and 0.52 and you get 0.30. Just 30% of registered voters saddled us with Obama. Forget about the polls and just vote. He has not gained followers.
Exactly! I’ve been trying to impress this on people for close to four years now. Our problem isn’t necessarily democrat fraud (although that IS a frustrating problem). Our problem is voter apathy.
It’s a sad state of affairs when a 55ish percent voter turnout is considered a successfull showing. It means that close to half of eligible voters think it’s not worth their time or energy to actually yo out and cast their vote.
While I regretfully admit the legality, if not the wisdom, of prosecutorial discretion in this area, I really have a problem with the mass issuance of work permits. The issuance of work permits to any aliens is pretty closely prescribed by the law, I think, and I don’t see any way this issuance of work permits to all the illegals being “deferred” can be legal.
Sir: Did you know that USCIS is so behind that in some categories, the wait times in the lineups for processing are 10 YEARS or more?
In USCIS language, this line up is called “retrogression”. Here’s the link. See for yourself.
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplayInit.do
“Deferred action” is a form of immigration triage, to separate the “good guys i.e. not criminals, kids who may have been brought here as infants, students whose paperwork expires etc; from the “bad guys” for example, a status holder who goes out and commits a felony.
Do some of the posters here REALLY want to see cattle car loads of people who look and talk just like you and me being shipped across the Canadian or Mexican borders?
Mass population transfers of this type were common in the 1940′s Europe (not only Jews, but Germans going west to get away from the Russians, Russians going east to escape the Germans), & Moslems and Hindus in the millions who swapped territory as part of the independence of INDIA in 1948, to cite but three examples.
The movies are on Youtube. Take a look.
Is this the sort of publicity that you want for the United States that you love?
When my grandparents immigrated to this country, they had to have 1. A skill that was in need in this country,and 2. A sponsor who would support them if they could not work for any reason.
I see nothing wrong with the identical requirements for anyone who immigrates today.
“Illegal Immigrant” = TRESPASSER.
People say that there is this RACE problem. People say that this RACE problem will be solved when the “developing world” pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of non-Whites and “assimilating” and “integrating” with them.
People say that the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, amalgamate with all those non-whites.
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.
If I went to another country other than the United States I would have to learn the language or I could not survive.
If I went to another country other than the united states there would be no work for me and no government to tell an employer not to be a racist,yet we here in the states feel for some reason we should have compassion for those that have NONE…yet we are so pompassss that we think we are trend setters for the world to follow.
If I went to another country I would most likely be thrown in jail or killed just for being an American.
The United States Of America is a place for immigrants to send money from and take advantage of, not to reside in or become part of, for any length of time.
They will never retire here, fight any wars or make this nation great.
This country has been flooded by immigrants for the singular purpose of Government strategies .