For years, the federal government has neglected its constitutional duty to enforce our nation’s laws against illegal immigration. But now the government is going a step further: It is actually reversing what little enforcement there has been.
The Obama administration is ordering the review of thousands of illegal-immigration cases and the dismissal of cases against illegals who have not been convicted of a felony since they first broke the law to come to the United States.
That’s outrageous!
The federal government is no longer merely failing to be diligent about enforcing the law; it is actively freeing lawbreakers to protect them from being deported! These are not illegal aliens who are living in society undetected. They are people who have been duly arrested and processed – and are being turned loose!
That undercutting of the law surprised even immigration attorneys. They “have reported coming to court anticipating clients’ deportations only to learn that the government was dismissing their cases,” the Houston Chronicle reported. In Houston alone, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has assigned five attorneys to do nothing but review and potentially overturn illegal-immigration cases – and the same thing is happening nationwide.
The new policy has frustrated Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who go to great lengths sometimes to apprehend illegal aliens. The release of illegals will “make our officers feel even more powerless to enforce the laws,” a representative of the agency’s workers told the Houston newspaper.
It is now clear that the Obama administration was serious in an internal memo uncovered recently that discussed ways to get around U.S. immigration law and create a back-door amnesty for possibly millions of illegal aliens. The president is frustrated that Congress has refused to pass a bill that would legalize millions of illegals, so he is evidently going to use the power of the executive branch to prevent the enforcement of existing laws that he opposes.
That is, in effect, creating a law by presidential decree, and the Constitution delegates no such authority to the president.
The American people are clear about the fact that they oppose both illegal immigration and amnesty. The administration has a duty to uphold laws duly enacted by Congress. It is appalling that it is instead undermining those very laws.