12
Jan

On Immigration, Obama Marches to His Own Drummer

Published on January 12th, 2012

By Joe Guzzardi
December 21, 2011

When it comes to immigration, President Barack Obama walks his own path. Enforcing existing laws is not the route he’s chosen. In recent months, President Obama, without Congressional approval or Constitutional authorization, has approved the release up to 300,000 so called low priority aliens.

Since his inauguration, President Obama has consistently lobbied for more H-1B non-immigrant visas despite an unemployment rate that has average well above 9 percent since he took office. The workers who receive those visas take jobs from Americans and, in most cases, become permanent residents.

President Obama’s latest move is symbolic of his disregard not only for the federal statutes that govern immigration but also for the American people who have repeatedly expressed their wishes for less immigration.

Two weeks ago, according to the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon, the Obama administration announced that it plans to reduce by 1,200 the number of National Guard troops deployed at the U.S. border with Mexico. In 2010, the National Guard was ordered to various points in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The troops’ original mission was to help Border Patrol agents watch for illegal crossers and drug traffic. The remaining troops will stay in place until the end of 2012 to focus on “intelligence operations.”

While agreeing that an intelligence-based strategy may be a “step in the right direction” and could make border operations more successful, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) has concerns. McCaul said: “While the National Guard is not the long-term solution and has its hands tied, they are necessary until we permanently increase our Border Patrol presence.”

As with President Obama’s deferred action plan, the amnesty for 300,000 aliens, the excuse offered for pulling the troops is that it will free up limited federal funds to put to better use.

That doesn’t hold water. The General Accountability Office reported that since 2006, when then-President George W. Bush initiated Project Jump Start, the cost for border troop deployment is $1.85 billion, a mere drop in the bucket compared to the all in $4.4 trillion expense that that Brown University’s Institute for International Studies projects as the Afghanistan War’s final tab.

Coincidentally, I was in my Congressman’s office when President Obama’s administration publicly issued the withdrawal timetable. Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA) explained to me that although his District 4 is “diverse,” his constituents are unified when it comes to immigration. They want the borders sealed and entitlements to illegal immigrants ended.

Expressing their “grave concern,” Altmire with Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) and 28 other Congressmen wrote to President Obama asking him to extend the National Guard’s deployment for another year. Altmire, who has traveled to the border, cited a GAO report which found that the U.S. Border Patrol has only 44 percent “operational control” of the southern U.S. border.

Reviewing three years of President Obama’s immigration actions show that his priority is amnesty: 1) the DREAM Act, a disguised amnesty, 2) “comprehensive immigration reform,” a blatant amnesty and 3) pardoning, an unofficial amnesty, more than a quarter of a million illegal aliens that the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department deem worthy. President Obama’s behavior directly—and outrageously— violates his sworn duty to uphold the laws of the land.

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Joe Guzzardi is a Senior Writing Fellow at Californians for Population Stabilization. His columns about immigration and other social issues have been syndicated since 1986. Contact him at [email protected]

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