Tag Archives: Dream Act

Governor Brewer Prevents Obama Turning 80,000 Illegals Into Arizona Welfare Recipients (And Voters?)

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By  via The Western Center for Journalism

 

Governor Jan Brewer has put the kibosh on Barack Obama’s unconstitutional, Dream Act “end run” around the US Congress by signing an executive order that will keep an estimated 80,000 illegal aliens off of Arizona welfare rolls.

In June, Barack Obama directed the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS)—a division of Homeland Security–to provide illegal aliens the means of deferring federal deportation orders. With this Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the president allows illegals who claim to have come to the United States as children to both avoid deportation and apply for US work permits in their state of residence by meeting any one of a number of conditions of eligibility.

Of course, as ICE Council president Chris Crane has already made clear, no illegal applying under the program is likely to be denied that eligibility.  For according to Crane, “[ICE and Border Patrol] officers have been told there is no burden for the alien to prove anything.”  If they say they qualify by having attended high school or taken a GED, their word cannot be questioned. They’re in!

Much of the major media claim that this presidential decree directing the executive branch to institute portions of the Dream Act (contrary to the will of Congress and the American people) came about via executive order. But that is NOT the case. Rather, Obama simply ignored the fact that the Dream Act had been 5 times voted down in Congress and issued a “demand-by-decree” that portions of the Act be implemented to suit his own political preferences. In short, he just TOLD Janet Napolitano what he wanted immigration-related  agencies of the executive branch to accomplish, and the USCIS is getting it done.

But if, as many have claimed, the Deferred Action program will not put illegals further along the road to citizenship, why was Obama so eager to have it implemented?

Arizona immigration attorney and Dream Act supporter Jose Penalosa provides the answer when he states that individuals covered under Obama’s Deferred Action decree will be the proud members of a brand new “…specific, non-visa immigrant category…” This new, Immigration Department “approved” category will provide these individuals with a special, “authorized presence” within the state, according to Regina Jeffries, Chair of the Arizona Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

And members of this new “immigrant category” could use that “authorized presence” to do something no other illegal alien in Arizona can do: that is, legally apply for an Arizona driver’s license, the “…gateway to public benefits in the state.” As Governor Brewer’s spokesman Matthew Benson puts it, “If the state doesn’t have the authority to block these illegal aliens from getting driver’s licenses our agencies will have no way of knowing who is entitled to public benefits.”

But Brewer’s executive order was specifically designed to “…bar people with deferred status from obtaining driver’s licenses or other state benefits.” The two page document therefore blocks the access of these “specially authorized” illegals to the entire welfare system of the state of Arizona! And as a result, Obama is prevented from using the tax dollars of Arizonans to purchase the votes of grateful Latinos!

Over the weekend, Nebraska joined Arizona in denying state benefits to illegals with deferred status. Will other Republican governors have the courage to join the fight?

Read more at The Western Center for Journalism.

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The Amazing Presidential Power-Grab (And Disregard for Rule of Law – He Makes Up His Own)

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By Kyle Stone via The American Thinker

With  little consternation or lasting opposition, the Obama administration has  dramatically usurped congressional power at the expense of popular will and the rule of law.  Numerous dastardly bureaucratic coups — motivated by the  president’s progressive and political agenda — have amazingly failed to  engender a serious response.

What  began as a trickle of presidential power-grabs has turned into a cascade of  executive roguery.  A list of them is worth some review and  reflection:

  •   In June 2012, President Obama circumvented Congress’s refusal to pass the DREAM  Act by instituting a portion of it on his own. Through executive order, the  administration has directed federal officers to no longer deport large swathes  of younger illegal immigrants, with an inclusive  net that could impact over a million. Conservative sage Charles Krauthammer summed  it up pithily: “This is out-and-out lawlessness. You had a clip of the president  himself say[ing] months ago, ‘I cannot do this on my own because there are laws  on the books.’ Well, I have news for the president — the  laws remain on the books. They haven’t changed.”
  •   Earlier this month, the Obama administration quietly stripped away a central  component of the 1996 bipartisan welfare reform act — the lynchpin work  requirements — passed by a Republican Congress and signed into law by President  Clinton. The regulations allow states to  substitute education programs as “work” for their residents to enjoy welfare  benefits. Self-described “neo-liberal” pundit Mickey Kaus reacted  to the “surprising (and possibly illegal) attempt to grant waivers of the work  requirements” as follows:

A  great deal of effort was put into defining what qualified as work, and making  sure that work actually meant work and not the various BS activities (including  BS training activities) the welfare bureaucracies often preferred to substitute  for work[.] … To the extent the administration’s action erodes the actual and  perceived toughness of the work requirements, which it does, it sends the  opposite and wrong signal.

In  effect, the administration is taking the teeth out of the reform.  So long  as states believe that new methods might achieve employment goals in the long run, the feds can approve the  changes, and those not working can enjoy sustained welfare benefits.  All  this without consulting those charged with actually making  law.

  •   The so-called Affordable Care Act (ACA) is one mammoth legislative concession to  executive-branch lawmaking. The Act is hardly a law at all, but rather a series  of directives and mandates, providing the secretary of HHS (i.e., the Obama  administration) immeasurable power in implementing the Act’s policy aims. One  example from earlier this year is the HHS religious mandate, requiring employers  to include abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception in their  employee health insurance. The regulation  applies to religious institutions like Catholic hospitals, schools, and  charities — regardless of whether these institutions object to such services on  moral grounds. Want to find the portion of the 2,700-page bill that deals with  this issue? Good luck. It’s not there.
  •   Less publicized examples are numerous. The Wall Street Journal‘s  Kimberly Strassel, in a recent superb  column, outlined a laundry list a few weeks ago:

o   The president opposes a federal law  criminalizing medical marijuana.  No problem — he merely instructed his  Justice Department not to prosecute violators.

o   He disapproves of the federal Defense  of Marriage Act.  No need to work with Congress on repealing it — he  merely stopped defending it in court.

o   With no love for the federal No Child  Left Behind Act, he ordered his Education Department to issue waivers “that are  patently inconsistent with the statute.”

o   Congress falls  short of passing cap-and-trade?  The administration had the Environmental  Protection Agency enforce something similar though unilateral  regulations.

o   Congress demurred in taking up “net  neutrality” internet regulations, so the president’s Federal Communications  Commission did it instead.

This  list could go on.

When  presidents past overstepped constitutional or statutory boundaries, the Fourth  Estate would lecture on “imperial” presidencies.  For President Obama,  however, the media’s progressive core prompts compliments of bravery and  perseverance, while journalistic duty turns a blind eye to procedural  lawlessness.  One wonders what their reaction would have been had President  George W. Bush and his administration acted similarly.

Politically  combatting this lawlessness is difficult, as a public debate about procedural  malfeasance invariably morphs into disputes of the substantive policy itself.   Attempts to highlight procedural strong-arming are blurred by political  attacks — “wars” on women, immigrants, the poor, and the like.  It may  also be said by political strategists that when one argues about procedure, he  has already lost the policy debate.

Political  challenges, however, are no excuse for allowing this administration to peel away  constitutional checks and balances.  A coordinated effort by conservative  and Republican (big “R” and small) causes must be brought to bear to inform the  voting public on these knavish executive end-runs.  John Adam famously  warned that our Constitution sought “a government of laws and not of men.”   Process matters.  Our constitutional framework depends on  it.

Kyle  Stone is a practicing attorney in Chicago, co-chair of Maverick  PAC Chicago, and board member for the Chicago Young  Republicans.  He can be reached at  kyle.evan.stone@gmail.com.

Read more at The American Thinker

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Obama By-Passes Congress (again) and Ignores Questions Regarding His ‘Non-Dream, Non-Amnesty Act’

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By Kasey Jachim

Yet again our President by-passes Congress and enacts his version of the ‘Dream Act’ – then runs for  cover!   Although the Dream Act failed in Congress, Obama has decided to ignore the Legislative Branch and use the Executive Branch to pursue his agenda.  Will he also ignore and challenge the Judicial Branch when Obamacare is overturned?

Even though he had two years of a Democrat White House, Senate and House of Representatives, he failed in his promise to pass immigration reform.  But now, just five months before the election, he decides to upstage Senator Marco Rubio and his plans for ‘legitimate’ immigration  reform and pander to the Latino vote.  Have you no shame Mr. Obama?

When questioned by reporters over his decision, the President retreated to the Oval Office.  According to Neil Munro of the Daily Caller:

“President Barack Obama declined to take any questions from reporters about  his controversial and significant decision to offer a de-facto amnesty to at  least 800,000 foreigners aged 15 to 30.

The president turned and walked away from reporters at the end of an early  afternoon address in the White House’s Rose Garden, even though two reporters  called out questions about his decision.

The announcement of the decision comes at a time of record unemployment among  low-skilled workers, Hispanics and African-Americans.”

Neil  Munro explains his exchange with President Obama in Rose Garden [VIDEO]

We need a leader who will enforce our laws instead of arrogantly ignoring them and suing states for doing the job he refuses to do.  Several states are being sued by the Obama Justice Department for trying to enforce immigration laws, voter ID laws, and even Right to Work laws.  Tell me again why this man is still the legal occupant of the White House?

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