By Matthew Vadum ——Bio and Archives--May 28, 2015
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two judges wrote that Texas had shown it would incur significant costs in issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants who would be allowed to stay in the country. The judges, Jerry E. Smith and Jennifer Elrod, also rejected the administration’s argument that the programs could not be reviewed by the courts because they stemmed from policy decisions by the president on how to enforce the immigration laws.
Republican lawmakers hailed the appellate court decision which the Obama administration has vowed to challenge in court. The ruling was a “well-reasoned decision to prevent President Obama from implementing his lawless executive amnesty program,” said Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). “Our immigration system is in desperate need of reform. But that reform must be agreed to and passed by Congress, not unilaterally imposed on the American people by the executive branch.”
These procedures would empower illegal aliens to “‘obtain a Social Security Number,’ ‘accrue quarters of covered employment,’ and ‘correct wage records to add prior covered employment,’” the opinion stated. The Circuit Court cautioned that if the program is ultimately struck down, illegals who got involved in the amnesty programs would have received benefits improperly. “Under the injunction, [the Department of Homeland Security] can choose whom to remove first; the only thing it cannot do is grant class-wide lawful presence and eligibility for accompanying benefits as incentives for low-priority aliens to self-identify in advance.” Conservative champion Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) has previously accused President Obama of “systematically” dismantling the nation’s immigration enforcement system. Obama’s attacks on America’s immigration laws are “undermining the very rule of law upon which our nation was founded and upon which its greatness depends.” At the PowerLine blog, John Hinderaker suggests that it’s not quite time for executive amnesty opponents to pop champagne corks. He writes that the case is far from over. “[W]hile this is not always clear from news accounts, no court has yet gotten anywhere near the merits of the case.” Judge Hanen determined that the states suing the federal government “are likely to prevail on a single argument on the merits, that is, that the administration did not comply with the notice and comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act in adopting DAPA.” The larger issues, including the constitutionality of Obama’s unilateral amnesty order, "have not yet been addressed in even a preliminary way," Hinderaker writes. Hinderaker may be right but there is still cause to rejoice when federal judges act like judges and enforce the laws of the land that an increasingly despotic chief executive is trying to subvert.“[E]ach person who applies for deferred action pursuant to the [Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program, or DAPA] criteria … shall also be eligible to apply for work authorization for the [renewable three-year] period of deferred action.”
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Matthew Vadum, matthewvadum.blogspot.com, is an investigative reporter.
His new book Subversion Inc. can be bought at Amazon.com (US), Amazon.ca (Canada)
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