Obama's Amnesty for Illegals Sidesteps the Law Again

Obama's Amnesty for Illegals Sidesteps the Law Again
by Roger Hedgecock
07/01/2011

The only announced Democrat candidate for President has repeatedly called for complete immigration reform while consistently failing to enforce the federal immigration laws on the books now.

Large majorities of Americans in repeated polls want border security first, jobs for Americans first and "path to citizenship" last. Obama wants amnesty first to get the undocumented Democrats to the polls in 2012, has bullied Republican employers with workplace raids to get their support for amnesty, and will never secure the border any more than his immediate predecessor did.

Senators Dick Durbin (D.-Ill.) and Bob Menendez (D.-N.J.) have introduced in Congress Obama's "comprehensive immigration reform," and Durbin introduces his Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act legislation every year, but the only ones dreaming are those two.

Because the public opposes these Obama priorities, Congress won't pass his amnesty agenda. In fact, Congress wants to pass mandatory E-Verify for employers to check whether job applicants are legally in the country. Obama opposes it.

Not to worry, big employers looking for cheap, exploitable, illegal labor. Not to worry, Democratic Party desperately looking for a way to win in 2012. Obama has simply dictated the amnesty. Mission accomplished. On to wiping out corporate jets. How did amnesty for illegals happen?

Failing to get support for Obama's legislative agenda in Congress, La Raza and other open-border advocate groups have long pressured Obama to issue an Executive Order to implement the DREAM Act (placing illegals ahead of citizen students in college), and the "path to citizenship" (illegals get an immediate green card while learning English and paying back taxes at their leisure). Obama publicly refused to do so, proclaiming, "That's not how democracy works."

But this is how dictatorship works. An "Executive Order is not even necessary. On June 17, 2011, Obama's Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) John Morton issued new guidelines to ICE agents, basically calling off deportation prosecutions of other than criminal aliens.

In school? Don't worry. No deportation even if caught. (DREAM Act accomplished.) Longtime illegal resident? Don't worry. No deportation. (Amnesty accomplished). Got an illegal job? Don't worry. No deportation.

Keep in mind that the Border Patrol might catch 25% to 50% of illegal aliens. ICE will detain for prosecution a small percentage of those rounded up. Most of those who are detained are let then go on their own recognizance pending a court date for a deportation hearing, never to be seen again.

So only a sliver of illegal aliens are ever prosecuted for breaking into the country. Those found guilty are almost all deported to the annoying and expensive task of sneaking right back into the U.S. about a day later.

Now that sliver of prosecutions just got reduced even more by Morton. And not for the first time.

Last August 2010, the Houston Chronicle, through a Freedom of Information Act request, caught the Houston ICE office doing the same type of "backdoor amnesty," as the Chronicle put it. Reminiscent of the later Operation Gun Walker scandal, higher-ups at first denied any such prosecutorial discretion memo had been issued, then denied (when the memo was made public) that anyone up the chain of command had seen or approved the memo, then withdrew the memo and said they would never do it again.

Well, they've done it again. This time, congressional investigators have a draft memo from Homeland Security that describes the goal as to "reduce the threat of removal" for illegals and calls it "a nonlegislative version of amnesty."

How much more clear does dictatorship have to be?

Obama's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified CO2 as a "pollutant" subject to regulation and taxation despite the failure of cap-and trade legislation to pass Congress. His National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has relaxed the rules governing employee elections for unionization despite the failure of card check, or majority sign-up, to pass Congress. Obama's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has pushed Net Neutrality rules despite any authorization from Congress and explicit court rulings denying FCC jurisdiction without congressional action.

Through nonenforcement of the law (Defense of Marriage Act, immigration), through regulation without authorization by Congress (EPA, NLRB, FCC), and now through "prosecutorial discretion," Obama does not govern, he rules.