As Conn pointed out yesterday, should President Obama grant amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants without the consent of Congress, hell be in violation of Article I of the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress the exclusive authority to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. While presidents unquestionably have the power to exercise immigration enforcement discretion in order to further foreign policy or humanitarian goals, what they do not have the power to do is functionally rewrite U.S. immigration law, which is exactly what Obamas impending executive action on immigration would do. The past incidents listed above were all in response to specific humanitarian crises or foreign policy events. They all were narrowly tailored to help specific subsets of immigrants. Obamas impending executive action is the exact opposite. He is planning on giving work permits, Social Security numbers, and drivers licenses to as many as 8 million illegal immigrants. This is not narrow humanitarian relief. This is a flagrant attempt to get around Congresss exclusive Article I power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. Obama is the first president in the history of the United States to abuse his executive prosecutorial discretion powers in this manner. Because no president has abused this power on this scale before, there is no case law that details the scope of a presidents prosecutorial discretion. Finding out where Lynch stands on this issue, before she is confirmed as Attorney General, is essential to upholding the rule of law in the United States. Lets hope our Senators can get some direct answers when her nomination hearing finally comes along.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 21:25:03 +0000
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