Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Dems: Obama Doesn’t Need Congress For Immigration Reform, You Know
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2013/02/16/dems-obama-doesnt-need-congress-for-immigration-reform-you-know-n1514143 ^ | Leah Barkoukis

Posted on 02/16/2013 5:25:34 PM PST by Kaslin

Democratic lawmakers seem confident immigration reform will happen in the near future because even if Congress doesn’t act, the president will move forward with executive orders, they say. Via The Hill:

"I don't think the president will be hands off on immigration for any moment in time," Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), the head of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters this week. "He's ready to move forward if we're not."

Rep. Joseph Crowley (N.Y.), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, echoed that message, saying Obama is "not just beating the drum," for immigration reform, "he's actually the drum major."

"There are limitations as to what he can do with executive order," Crowley said Wednesday, "but he did say that if Congress continued to fail to act that he would take steps and measures to enact common-sense executive orders to move this country forward."

Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said there are "plenty" of executive steps Obama could take if Congress fails to pass a reform package. "The huge one," Grijalva said, is "the waiving of deportation" in order to keep families together.

"Four million of the undocumented [immigrants] are people who overstayed their visas to stay with family," he said Friday. "So that would be, I think, an area in which … there's a great deal of executive authority that he could deal with."

While working through Congress is the preferable method for Democrats and Obama, these lawmakers are probably correct. Although it wasn’t an executive order, we already saw Obama act unilaterally last year when he dramatically changed immigration policy by halting the deportation of younger illegal immigrants. But if the president waves deportation as Grijalva suggests, he would be opening the floodgates for an even bigger illegal immigration problem down the road. 1986, anyone? Yes, key figures from both sides of the political aisle are working on immigration reform but amnesty shouldn’t be part of Congress or the president’s plan.

In the meantime, however, let’s not forget that illegal immigration is still a crime.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: aliens; barackobama; democrats; executiveorder; immigrationreform
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

1 posted on 02/16/2013 5:25:40 PM PST by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

May the Pharaoh and his synchofants race into the Red Sea. We know how that ended don’t we.


2 posted on 02/16/2013 5:39:42 PM PST by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I suppose a reply might be that Congress does not need democrats to impeach the bastard........


3 posted on 02/16/2013 5:39:42 PM PST by doorgunner69
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I thought I read that an executive order could be overturned by subsequent administrations.

If true, this could cause future chaos.


4 posted on 02/16/2013 5:40:16 PM PST by berdie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Apparently Obama doesn’t need congress for anything.


5 posted on 02/16/2013 5:40:16 PM PST by ilovesarah2012
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SandRat

This country is over people.


6 posted on 02/16/2013 5:41:51 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

7 posted on 02/16/2013 5:48:27 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (Obama's vision - No Job is a Good Job)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin; All
As mentioned in related threads, the Supreme Court clarified in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that executive orders do not have the force of law unless they have the legislative support of Congress.
Executive order

And since Congress is divided, if you call Democrats versus RINOs divided, Obama can make paper airplanes out of many of his executive orders.

But more importantly, Thomas Jefferson had noted, in terms of the 10th Amedment nonetheless, that the states have never delegated to Congress via the Constitution the specific power to regulate immigration.

"4. _Resolved_, That alien friends are under the jurisdiction and protection of the laws of the State wherein they are: that no power over them has been delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the individual States, distinct from their power over citizens. And it being true as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared, that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people (emphasis added)," the act of the Congress of the United States, passed on the -- day of July, 1798, intituled "An Act concerning aliens," which assumes powers over alien friends, not delegated by the Constitution, is not law, but is altogether void, and of no force." --Thomas Jefferson, Draft of the Kentucky Resolutions - October 1798.

So not only does Obama not have strong support from Congress to make valid, immigration-related executive orders, but Congress doesn't have the constitutional authority to make immigration-related legislation in the first place, immigration a 10A-protected state power issue.

8 posted on 02/16/2013 6:06:00 PM PST by Amendment10
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The Arrogant B__tards!

Recent Weekly Standard Cover says it all:

We don’t need no stinkin Congress!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/—DjCgFsVLVg/UQq2lKOdb_I/AAAAAAAAE3I/bfg52Si2fj8/s640/nostinkin_cover.jpeg


9 posted on 02/16/2013 6:10:52 PM PST by Texas Fossil
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

What these Democrat lawmakers are saying is thet we have no need for them. Obama makes the laws.

If he is right why do we need them. Lets just do away with Congress and make Obama King.

That appears to be what the Democrats want.


10 posted on 02/16/2013 6:12:24 PM PST by Venturer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The biggest culprits in all of this are not in the administration. The administration is full of ideological idiots with huge egos and an agenda. That is clear. The biggest culprits are the American people who voted for them - the coalition of the uninformed, the envious, those who think it’s justified to live off the efforts of others, and those who way overestimate their own intellect. There’s much, much more to say, but that’s the essence of it.


11 posted on 02/16/2013 6:13:49 PM PST by pieceofthepuzzle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

It’s a commie dictator thing. He doe need no steekin’ Congress.


12 posted on 02/16/2013 6:18:12 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Now Playing. Obama II - The Revenge of My Father.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: pieceofthepuzzle

Excellent post.


13 posted on 02/16/2013 6:30:24 PM PST by berdie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Amendment10

What you wrote may indeed be true, but any consequences for disregarding the Constitution are decades in the past.


14 posted on 02/16/2013 6:49:06 PM PST by rlmorel (1793 French Jacobins and 2012 American Liberals have a lot in common.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Amendment10

I should have added the rule of law as well. Contracts mean absolutely nothing under the rule of law, they only mean something under the hand of both arbitrary and selective enforcement of law.

Bill Whittle said it very eloquently in his VSOTU Address.


15 posted on 02/16/2013 6:51:35 PM PST by rlmorel (1793 French Jacobins and 2012 American Liberals have a lot in common.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: pieceofthepuzzle

I agree.

The radicals in charge are the effect.

The people who bought into it are the cause. And that is, in many ways, far more alarming.

One can withstand an election cycle. but when it is clear the water of the electorate has been fouled, where can one go to get clean water, and how long is that going to take?

What we see is the result of liberalism beginning almost exactly 100 years ago last month with the inauguration of Woodrow Wilson. The steady drip-drip-drip of liberal claptrap finally broke through the skull of the American people.

How do we undo that?


16 posted on 02/16/2013 6:58:13 PM PST by rlmorel (1793 French Jacobins and 2012 American Liberals have a lot in common.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

They wouldn’t be saying that if he were a Repub......


17 posted on 02/16/2013 7:32:43 PM PST by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel

“How do we undo that?”

It will undo itself, when the inevitable decline in quality of life that always accompanies socialism / communism occurs. The problem is that this is a long process, and many people will be hurt before reality sinks in. Is there another way? I hope so. Depending on the day, I sometimes believe there is, and sometimes not.


18 posted on 02/16/2013 8:55:52 PM PST by pieceofthepuzzle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: pieceofthepuzzle

Well, that is what I figure, though I wish I felt it would happen some other way.


19 posted on 02/16/2013 9:06:57 PM PST by rlmorel (1793 French Jacobins and 2012 American Liberals have a lot in common.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Remember, it would have never gotten to this point but for the Republican establishment - Bush, Rove, McCain, Graham, the Wall Street Journal, the Chamber of Commerce, etc. - starting the amnesty kick in 2006, rather than enforcing the more than adequate laws on the books.


20 posted on 02/16/2013 9:41:01 PM PST by oldbill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson