What do we even need a Congress for?
Posted on 08/02/2014 12:33:03 PM PDT by jazusamo
President Obama is expected to take executive action to help illegal immigrants stay in the country while Congress is away on a five-week recess, pro-immigrant advocates said Saturday.
Obama and his allies believe his authority to act without legislative approval has been strengthened by congressional gridlock over comprehensive reform.
“I’ve heard not to expect anything until toward the end of August. They’ve been listening to suggestions by advocates over what could be done. The president has yet to make a decision about what steps he plans to take,” said Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the president makes some kind of announcement before the end of August, prior to the Congress returning.”
White House officials have met in recent weeks with a variety of advocacy groups and stakeholders to review proposals for executive action. A vote in the House Friday to speed the deportation of unaccompanied minors from Central America and halt Obama’s 2012 executive order deferring action on illegal immigrants who came to the country at a young age has hardened the resolve of groups pressing for executive action.
“After what the House GOP did yesterday, it marks a long stream of failures to deal with the issue or deal with it responsibly. They have reaffirmed time and time again that the president needs to stem in and we believe that, the president needs to step in,” said Clarissa Martínez-De-Castro, deputy vice president of advocacy and legislation at the National Council of La Raza.
“They have said since earlier this year that they were going to look at the end of the summer if Congress didn’t move,” she added. “The deportation issue has been something that’s been in people’s mind for a very long time."
Pro-immigrant advocates have loudly complained about the pace of deportations during Obama’s tenure, dubbing him the “deporter-in-chief.”
Obama told reporters Friday the lack of action by the House on comprehensive reform has opened the door for him to act unilaterally.
“Even though they’ve been sitting on a bipartisan immigration bill for over a year, House Republicans suggested that since they don't expect to actually pass a bill that I can sign, that I actually should go ahead and act on my own to solve the problem,” he said.
He pledged to take executive action this month to address a surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America who have been apprehended on the Texas border.
Senior Democratic senators such as Bob Menendez (N.J.) have called on Obama to halt deportations of illegal immigrants whose immediate family members are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Menendez said last week the president should act soon because House Republicans made it clear “they [are] not going to have a vote on immigration reform,” calling that signal a “trigger moment.”
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said, “the sooner, the better.”
Pro-immigrant groups have presented Obama with other options for executive action.
One proposal would have him drop the three- and 10-year waiting periods for immigrants applying for permanent legal residence after having lived in the United States illegally.
Immigrants with less than one year of illegal residence must leave the country and are barred from returning for a period of three years while they wait for their applications to process. The 10-year bar applies to immigrants who have lived in country illegally for more than a year.
These restrictions have made it extremely difficult for immigrants who are married to a U.S. citizen or sponsored by an employer to obtain legal status since prospective applicants are often unwilling to leave the United States such long times.
The federal government currently may waive these requirements if an applicant demonstrates they would impose extreme hardship.
“There are all kinds of things the president can do to help out different categories of immigrants,” Wilkes said. “We suggested things that would help people get around the bars to admissibility because there are a lot of folks that have a legal process to apply for and haven’t been able to do so because of the bars to admissibility.”
Martínez-De-Castro said Obama has the authority to empower immigration officials to use more discretion over whether defer deportation proceedings against illegal residents who have otherwise followed the law or have long-standing ties to the country.
“The hope is that the president uses executive action within his authority to establish a case-by-case process where they continue be able to prioritize national security and public safety and not focus on people who mean no harm and have very established roots in the community,” she said.
She said the president through unilateral action can reform the immigration system as much as possible to reflect the goals of the comprehensive immigration reform bill Senate Democrats and 14 Senate Republicans passed last year.
In reality it's criminal
so Barry plans to help illegal aliens flaunt and break the laws of our country...
so whats new ???
both he and his buddies the illegal aliens hate America...
Why should ICE and Border Patrol carry out his illegal orders when he refuses to obey the law forbidding the transportation and aiding illegals? They took an oath to uphold the Constitution, and everyone knows the president can’t make laws.
I distinctly remember reading the section of the Constitution where it says that the President is empowered to take unilateral action in the event of congressional gridlock over comprehensive reform. /s
This will not end well.
Exactly...When reading this I was wondering where in the Constitution or what laws give him the authority for unilateral action on immigration law because of congressional gridlock.
He might as well. The USA has been gone for a while now.
I miss the rule of law.
We need to send him as well as the illegals to mexico for good
“Obama and his allies believe his authority to act without legislative approval has been strengthened by congressional gridlock”
I can’t find the clause in the U.S. Constitution that says the President has special, strengthened authority when there is Congressional gridlock.
Can anyone help me out here?
Under what Constitution? Certainly not the USAs!
The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government,
I can only hope the lines at the voting booth are long, well past closing time . . . reminiscent of the first time I voted and stood in line until almost 9 p.m. in Arlington TX to cast my vote for Ronald Reagan. I had driven almost 350 miles that day to go and drive my recently widowed grandmother to the polls and got back before 7 to vote myself. Sad to say, I let my other grandmother drive herself . . . she voted for the other guy, a die-hard Dem, in TX we called them yellow dog Dems.
I hope the whole United States of America turns BRIGHT RED from coast to coast in a veto proof repudiation of the Dems and their Dear Leader.
Probably won’t happen . . . but I can hope.
Let me guess Obama will be giving a Pile of Insanely Boring Speeches while Congress is away on a five-week recess
“Even though they’ve been sitting on a bipartisan immigration bill for over a year, House Republicans suggested that since they don’t expect to actually pass a bill that I can sign, that I actually should go ahead and act on my own to solve the problem,” he said.
Oh really Mr. president?
OK, name them, go ahead...
It’s my theory that the house passed this bill at the
last minute knowing it would spur Obama to act on his
own and give them more evidence for impeachment.
Obama may say they haven’t acted, but here is a bill
passed to deal with the problem...
I hope you are right. At this point I am even willing to win with the likes of Thad Cochran of Mississippi if that is what it takes.
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