Forget Congress – Obama may grant amnesty by executive order

Imagine the possibilities. With the stroke of a pen 15-20 million illegal immigrants could be exempted from deportation.


In an attempt to bypass Congress, the legislative process and our Constitution which guarantees of the people by the people, President Obama has shown signs that he may sign an executive order that will throw sand in the face of the will of the people.


But will the executive order stand judicial scrutiny? If the six-month ban on deep-water oil drilling in the Gulf is any indication, the courts will surely have something to say about the legality of such a bold move by the President on a very divisive issue.


Earlier this week eight U.S. Senators sent a letter querying the President’s intentions regarding the order of a de facto amnesty. The mood of country over the past few months has sent a clear message to those in Congress as well as the White House – secure the borders and no amnesty.


“The whispering has erupted with an open letter to the President from eight U.S. Senators spelling out the details known thus far,” says Roy Beck of NumbersUSA.


“In a nutshell, there is discussion going on within the Administration about stopping nearly all deportations, presumably until ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ can be passed to give illegal aliens full work and residency rights permanently. The point here is to satisfy the open-border bloc of voters who have been threatening to boycott the elections this fall unless President Obama makes an all-out effort to pass an amnesty this year,” Beck said.


Mutterings began to enter the strong no amnesty advocacy groups, like NumbersUSA, last week at the Brookings conference when they indicated they had been talking to the Obama administration about different ways to help illegal immigrants without having to go through Congress.


Beck explains that U.S. Presidents have proven whether Republican or Democrat that they are capable of doing almost anything they please to get re-elected. “Only an incredible outburst of outrage from the public can stop the Administration from doing a de facto amnesty all by itself.”


NumbersUSA has rolled out a new campaign to let all 535 members of Congress how they feel about a possible “executive order” amnesty deal.


“We want Democrats in Congress to begin to tell their leaders and the White House that even the hint that this amnesty could happen will hurt their chances of winning in the fall. We want Republicans to start threatening to use the Plot as a campaign issue. We want the White House to publicly promise that it will not unilaterally proclaim an amnesty,” Beck said.


The following is the letter sent to the White House by eight concerned Senators;


“Dear President Obama;

We understand that there’s a push for your Administration to develop a plan to unilaterally extend either deferred action or parole to millions of illegal aliens in the United States. We understand that the Administration may include aliens who have willfully overstayed their visas or filed for benefits knowing that they will not be eligible for a status for years to come. We understand that deferred action and parole are discretionary actions reserved for individual cases that present unusual, emergent or humanitarian circumstances. Deferred action and parole were not intended to be used to confer a status or offer protection to large groups of illegal aliens, even if the agency claims that they look at each case on a ‘case-by-case’ basis.


While we agree our immigration laws need to be fixed, we are deeply concerned about the potential expansion of deferred action or parole for a large illegal alien population. While deferred action and parole are Executive Branch authorities, they should not be used to circumvent Congress’ constitutional authority to legislate immigration policy, particularly as it relates to the illegal population in the United States.


The Administration would be wise to abandon any plans for deferred action or parole for the illegal population. Such a move would further erode the American public’s confidence in the federal government and its commitment to securing the borders and enforcing the laws already on the books.

We would appreciate receiving a commitment that the Administration has no plans to use either authority to change the current position of a large group of illegal aliens already in the United States, and ask that you respond to us about this matter as soon as possible.”

The letter was signed by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), David Vitter (R-La.)
Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.).


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