So I've been reading and roasting wingnuts on this issue of Obama's authority to do his EO on immigration. Gonna put my debates notes and references here for easy access:
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"EVERY President since 1956 has given some relief to some group of immigrants by executive order. That includes Reagan, who signed a law in 1986 giving amnesty to approximately three million people already in the US illegally. A year later, he deferred deportation proceedings for children under 18 of those people. George H.W. Bush expanded that further in 1990 expanded that further to include all spouses and children of affected people."
Wingnuts... "...might be surprised to learn just how much precedent there is:
Here's a look "...back at immigration policy from the days of President Ronald Reagan through those of President George W. Bush. The instances of selective enforcement highlighted include:
* The Reagan administration easing immigration standards for 200,000 Nicaraguan exiles fleeing communism in 1987. That year, Attorney General Edwin Meese instructed the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to ”encourage and expedite Nicaraguan applications for work authorizations” and ordered the service to ”encourage Nicaraguans whose claims for asylum or withholding of deportation have been denied to reapply for reopening or rehearing.”
* A 1990 executive order from President George H. W. Bush making it easier for Chinese students to stay in the country should they fear persecution upon being sent back to China. The action effectively stopped deportation proceedings against these students for nearly four years.
* A 1991 executive order, again from Bush, that delayed deportation of Kuwaiti residents for four years, which came following Iraq’s invasion of that country.
* The Clinton administration’s decision in 1993 to grant an 18-month extension of a deferred action departure program affecting U.S.-based Salvadoran immigrants. The program had been launched to help those fleeing a civil war in that country.
* A 2001 George W. Bush executive order that gave 150,000 Salvadorans the right to remain in the country 18 more months after their country was hit by an earthquake.
* And a 2002 Bush executive order that expedited naturalization proceedings for those green card holders who had enlisted in the United States military. The order eliminated the three-year waiting period that had existed up to that point.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show ... ting-trail
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"Utah Senator Orrin Hatch: ""This president is prone to doing through executive order that which he cannot do by working with the Congress, because he won't work with us. If he worked with us, I think we could get an immigration bill through..."
Kevin Drum: "...it was only 17 months ago that the Senate passed a vigorously negotiated and tough-minded bipartisan immigration bill that was actively supported by President Obama. You know who voted for it? Orrin Hatch. The only reason it's not the law of the land today is....Republicans in the House."
As long as bullshitters never have to pay a price for bullshitting, they will continue to bullshit.". --Scott Supak
Why won't Orrin Hatch blame Republicans for the failure of immigration reform?
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2 ... ion-reform
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Rachel Maddow says Obama's proposed immigration move on 'same scale' as action by George H.W. Bush
"Our ruling
Maddow said Obama’s proposed executive action on immigration policy is roughly on the same scale as one taken by Bush. The estimates of how many people would be affected by the policies of both presidents, compared to total number of undocumented immigrants at the time support the claim. Both measures unilaterally lifted or would lift the risk of deportation from about 40 percent of the reported population.
We rate the claim True."
http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/st ... n-moves-a/
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"Republicans admit, Obama's got GOP by the balls"
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/11/20/ ... tions.html
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"Republicans Accuse Obama of Treating Immigrants Like Humans"
WASHINGTON – In a sharp Republican rebuke to President Obama’s proposed actions on immigration, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell accused the President, on Thursday night, of “flagrantly treating immigrants like human beings, in clear defiance of the wishes of Congress.” More here:
http://nyr.kr/1xI8vT8
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Obama's deported more undocumented than any president in history. By far:
"If you... compare the two presidents’ monthly [deportation] averages, it works out to 32,886 for Obama and 20,964 for Bush, putting Obama clearly in the lead. Bill Clinton is far behind with 869,676 total and 9,059 per month. All previous occupants of the White House going back to 1892 fell well short of the level of the three most recent presidents."
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter ... -other-pr/
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"To find examples of a President acting unilaterally on deportation policy would... I mean, to find examples of that, you'd have to go back as far as....
CNN (9/15/2007): "George W. Bush issued an executive order ... the U.S. President has granted a reprieve to more than 3,500 Liberians who have been facing deportation from the United States."
Jon Stewart responds: Wow, other than George Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, no President in modern history has changed deportation policy through executive action... except *ALL OF THEM.*"
--Transcript along with links to the original video:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/2 ... bama-video
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I wonder why Hispanics don't vote for republicans:
http://www.motherjones.com/files/blog_s ... eloupe.jpg
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All republican presidents since Eisenhower have used Executive Orders to fix immigration:
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... 2927_o.png
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Obama immigration speech:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/201 ... mmigration
Transcript:
"The actions I’m taking are not only lawful, they’re the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican President and every single Democratic President for the past half century. And to those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/2 ... l=facebook#
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The Teabagger led, "Worst Congress Ever" sat on their thumbs for 512 days, refusing to consider, vote on or pass a bipartisan bill that the Senate passed. They blew it. They snooze, they lose. It was past tiime for the adult in Washington to step up and get the job done, as he promised he would. If they want to change that they can pass a bill for him to sign.
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"The President’s Precedents"
"...both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush extended reprieves from deportation to family members who were not covered by a 1986 congressional overhaul of the nation’s immigration system. Neither man faced the type of blowback that Obama is getting prior to his own announcement...the list of executives pushing through reforms includes:
George W. Bush, who allowed members of the military with green cards to expedite their citizenship process in the wake of 9/11;
Bill Clinton, who eased deportation of refugees from El Salvador and Haiti;
and Jimmy Carter, who granted a wide range of refugee groups temporary relief from deportation.
The list doesn’t stop there: John F. Kennedy created a federal program for Cuban refugees,
Harry Truman launched his own commission to study immigration reform after Congress refused his request to do so, and
Franklin Roosevelt initiated the Bracero program, which brought 2 million short-term Mexican farm workers to the country."
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... to_go.html
Chart form:
https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... e=54D32129
EO precedent... You know what else was and EO that bypassed Congress? The Emancipation Proclimation.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 38750cc141
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"The Decline in Illegal Immigration From Mexico-Becker
Net illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States has been essentially zero and perhaps even negative, during the past few years."
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/2013/ ... ecker.html
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" Obama, immigration, and the rule of law"
" #3: Some argue that the George H.W. Bush’s decision to exempt some 1.5 million illegal immigrants from deportation in 1990 is different from Obama’s decision because the former exercise of discretion was authorized by Congress in the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which gave the president authority to preclude deportation in cases where doing so would “assure family unity.” But as the Office of Legal Counsel points out in its memo defending Obama’s actions, other federal laws give the president authority to forego deportation more generally, including cancellation of removal. Moreover, as the memo points out, the Supreme Court in Arizona v. United States has explicitly interpreted existing immigration law as giving the the executive branch the authority to defer deportation for humanitarian reasons:
A principal feature of the removal system is the broad discretion exercised by immigration officials… Federal officials, as an initial matter, must decide whether it makes sense to pursue removal at all….
Discretion in the enforcement of immigration law embraces immediate human concerns. Unauthorized workers trying to support their families, for example, likely pose less danger than alien smugglers or aliens who commit a serious crime. The equities of an individual case may turn on many factors, including whether the alien has children born in the United States, long ties to the community, or a
record of distinguished military service."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volo ... le-of-law/
Even better:
" It’s Legal
The underpinnings of the president’s immigration plan are anything but radical."
" The idea that the immigration plan just announced by President Obama is a lawless power grab is absurd. As the Justice Department legal analysis that was just released amply demonstrates, much of the advance criticism of the president’s action has been uninformed and unwarranted. The opinion is well-reasoned and at times even conservative. The president is not acting unilaterally, but pursuant to his statutory authority. Wide discretion over deportation priorities has long been conferred on the executive branch by Congress, and it is being exercised in this case consistent with policies such as family unification that have been endorsed by Congress."
"Even though the action is breathtaking in scope, there is nothing legally remarkable about what the administration is doing, or the legal analysis supporting it. The announced “deferred action” provides temporary administrative relief from deportation for aliens who are the parents of citizens, or the parents of lawful permanent residents. “Deferred action” is an exercise of discretion in which officials may temporarily defer the removal of an alien. The grant of deferred action in this case will remain in place for three years, is subject to renewal, and can be terminated at any time at the discretion of the Department of Homeland Security. As Eric Posner, who served in the Office of Legal Counsel under the first President Bush, notes, the president “is just doing what countless Congresses have wanted him to do”—setting priorities for deportation enforcement."
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... r_are.html
Further: "The Department of Homeland Security’s Authority to
Prioritize Removal of Certain Aliens Unlawfully Present
in the United States and to Defer Removal of Others"
http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/fi ... emoval.pdf
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It's Self-funded:
" But lawmakers can't cut off funding for Obama's action because the agency responsible for carrying out the changes is completely self-funded, the House Appropriations Committee explained in a statement:
"The primary agency for implementing the President's new immigration executive order is the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This agency is entirely self-funded through the fees it collects on various immigration applications. Congress does not appropriate funds for any of its operations, including the issuance of immigration status or work permits, with the exception of the 'E-Verify' program. Therefore, the Appropriations process cannot be used to 'de-fund' the agency. The agency has the ability to continue to collect and use fees to continue current operations, and to expand operations as under a new Executive Order, without needing legislative approval by the Appropriations Committee or the Congress, even under a continuing resolution or a government shutdown.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/2 ... mg00000013
Reagan/Bush same thing:
"When Reagan and GHW Bush took bold executive action on immigration"
"The success of the Reagan-Bush family fairness policy serves as a strikingly similar historical precedent for Obama. Bush Sr. “went big” to treat families fairly—deferring deportations for over 40 percent of unauthorized immigrants. Reportedly, Obama’s actions could be similarly broad and help up to 5 million immigrants—over 40 percent of today’s unauthorized population. Bush Sr.’s actions gave immigrants a safe haven and spurred the House to act without negative impacts in the subsequent midterms. And the Reagan-Bush fairness policy deferred deportations to protect families, compared to previous uses of presidential authority to protect war refugees or immigrants stranded by a foreign policy crisis.
We don’t know what executive action Obama will take. But we can say with certainty that presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush led the way."
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/ ... -action-on
Precedent, in picture:
https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hph ... e=550B2851
"I have no doubt that President Obama has executive branch legal authority to take the expected immigration action," --Leti Volpp, a professor at the University of California Berkeley School of Law
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"The U.S. has a population of 300 million, so if you instead look at average annual inflow as a percent of population the story is very different."
With .4% per year, we come in 22nd place.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/modeledbeha ... the-world/
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"136 Law Professors Say President Has Legal Authority to Act on Immigration"
"Today, 136 law professors from across the United States joined the debate with a clear statement of support for the President’s ability to take action. Their letter states clearly that the “administration has the legal authority to use prosecutorial discretion as a tool for managing resources and protecting individuals residing in and contributing to the United States in meaningful ways.” Prosecutorial discretion is “grounded in the Constitution, and has been part of the immigration system for many years.”
The letter was drafted by experts in prosecutorial discretion—Legomsky, Hiroshi Motomura of UCLA Law School, and Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia of Penn State University School of Law. And the signing professors, from 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, represent a wide-cross section of America. There are signers from Texas and Florida to North Carolina, Arizona, and Missouri, among other states. Every Ivy League law school is represented, as well as state schools and faith-based institutions."
http://immigrationimpact.com/2014/09/03 ... taTqT.dpuf
Reagan called his amnesty:
"I believe in the idea of amnesty for those who have put down roots and lived here, even though sometime back they may have entered illegally," he said.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =128303672
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"Rather than talking about putting up a fence, why don't we work out some recognition of our mutual problems? Make it possible for them to come here legally with a work permit, and then, while they're working and earning here, they'd pay taxes here. And when they want to go back, they can go back. They can cross. Open the borders both ways." --Reagan
http://reason.com/blog/2014/11/21/frida ... ation-poli
