President’s Immigration Executive Order a Time Bomb That May Backfire

By Joe Guzzardi
June 25, 2012

In the weeks leading up to President Obama’s announcement that illegal aliens between 16 and 30 would be quasi-legalized and given work permits, the Oval Office must have been a busy place. Since his inauguration, Obama has been leaned on hard by open border lobbyists to decree what Congress has refused to do for more than ten years—exempt qualifying DREAM Act individuals from deportation.

Obama’s inner circle was broader than just advocates and White House aides. Within a day or two after the president spoke, Time circulated its nationally read and influential weekly magazine with the cover feature, not coincidentally; written by illegal immigrants and titled “We Are Americans, Just Not Legally.” Given that it takes weeks to lay out a major publication, the administration must have given Time an early heads up. In concert with the magazine’s distribution, ultra-liberal Bloomberg News released skewed polling that falsely indicated that Americans approve of this back door amnesty.

But the poll omitted the key question: “Do you favor giving work permits to as many as 2 million previously unauthorized alien workers in an economy with 20 million unemployed or under employed Americans?” If pollsters don’t tell respondents what the key issues are, they get whatever result they want.

Whether you agree with President Obama’s bold and, according to George W. Bush’ s former attorney general and DREAM Act supporter, Alberto Gonzales, overreaching move or oppose it on constitutional grounds, the fight is far from over.

First, the Department of Homeland Security has not even begun to lay the foundation to convert Obama’s orders into a tangible bureaucratic program with a step by step process for aliens to go from unemployed to work authorized. Once DHS outlines the administrative procedures, then (hopefully) it will begin the massive due diligence task. Are the applicants who they say they are? Do their stated histories reflect reality or fraud? The White House has set a mere two months as the goal to implement its amnesty—a wildly optimistic calculation.

Second, every day that passes while DHS struggles to tie up loose ends is one day closer to November 6. As they hit the campaign trail Congressional Democrats, specifically incumbents, will be asked whether they agree with Obama’s bombshell. Agreeing could mean certain defeat. Even before Obama’s decision, Democratic solidarity had already cracked. West Virginia’s top three Democrats will not attend their party’s September national convention in North Carolina.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, all super delegates and incumbents running for reelection, refuse to pick Obama as their party’s nominee. Historically, West Virginia is a Democratic stronghold.

Third, a legal challenge may be looming. According to Kansas Secretary of State and constitutional scholar Kris Kobach, the “prosecutorial discretion” Obama has advised Immigration and Customs officials to use doesn’t exist and was eliminated in 1996. Furthermore, in another violation of Obama’s oath of office, he’s ordered ICE agents to break the law.

Kobach, a graduate of Harvard and Oxford Universities, stated that in 1996 Congress inserted several interlocking provisions into immigration law that require deportation.

The addenda became necessary when Clinton administration Executive Branch officials learned of thousands of aliens that the then-president had set free based on “discretion.”

The 1996 Congress, Kobach continued, enacted these provisions explicitly to force the Executive Branch to place into removal proceedings virtually every illegal alien encountered by federal immigration agents.

During the four months remaining until the election, President Obama will skate on ever-thinner ice as he struggles to implement his illegal executive order. And in the end, the Hispanic vote which he so craves may not be enough to overcome moderate voters disgust with his duplicity.

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