Barck Obama and Joe Biden share an expansive view of executive authority when it comes to immigration.
Obama's efforts to legalize 4 million DACA recipients fell victim to the courts which saw the aggressive abuse of executive authority as unconstitutional. Now, Joe Biden has inked an executive order that automatically places the illegal alien spouses of U.S. citizens on a path to citizenship. The order affects about half a million illegal aliens who have been in the country for a decade or more.
The government began taking applications for the program this week. Now, Texas and 15 other states have sued the federal government for the simple reason that once again, Biden has exceeded his executive authority and overrode Congress in purpose and intent.
The states are looking for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to immediately suspend the program.
“The Biden-Harris Administration — dissatisfied with the system Congress created, and for blatant political purposes — has yet again attempted to create its own immigration system,” the 67-page court filing said.
“This agency action is nothing less than mass amnesty cloaked in purported executive discretion — a sweeping, last-minute ploy by an administration bent on rewriting immigration laws without Congress,” it said.
"Congress isn't doing anything about immigration" is not a legal justification for the executive using these politically explosive, sweeping, expansive increases in executive power.
Perhaps better presidential leadership would result in Congress doing its job on immigration. The fact that they are not passing immigration law that Biden wants says that either Biden is a horrible leader or the people of the United States don't want his ideas on immigration to become law. Or both.
Beyond executive overreach, the states point out that the Biden administration is abusing the "parole" process. Parole is an authority exercised by Homeland Security on a case-by-case basis to allow illegal aliens to enter the country if they can prove they're in danger.
“Parole authority is not unbounded,” the suit added.
Under the new policy, up to 500,000 undocumented spouses could be shielded from deportation and given a pathway to citizenship and permission to work legally in the United States.
The program, announced on June 18 by President Biden, marked one of the most expansive actions to assist undocumented immigrants since Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, was enacted 12 years ago to protect those who came to the United States as children.
In unveiling the program for undocumented spouses, Mr. Biden said that he was promoting family unity, which he called a core American value.
There may be a good reason to grant parole to some illegal alien spouses of U.S. citizens, but it needs to be done on a case-by-case basis
The procedure is simple. but time-consuming. An illegal alien spouse must return to their country of origin and complete the process of getting a visa and coming to the country legally. It may take weeks or even months for the illegal spouse to make it back to the U.S. at which time they can go through the normal process of getting a green card.
"But it's too hard" is not a rational argument.
“This is a baseless legal attack, focused entirely on the politics of trying to go after immigrants and American families, against a highly popular and lawful policy,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, a pro-immigrant group.
Why not just give Biden a scepter and a crown and let him sit on a throne?
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