Executive orders

Why do we regard “executive orders” as law? They were not passed by congress and signed into law by the president, but mandated as if we are living in a dictatorship.

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What would be the result if we ignored them as if they did not exist? What force of law do they have? I am equally distressed by the blurring of the word “illegal”. Has it no meaning any more or do the powers-that-be not want it to have meaning? Tad

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