Obama Bypasses Congress On Immigration Reform
“On my own, without Congress.” – President Obama
In what appeared to be an attempt to divert the news cycle from another round of SCOTUS smackdowns, President Obama announced this afternoon that he will bypass Congress to enact “comprehensive immigration reform.” However, at no point did he discuss what his plan would entail.
Citing an attempt to work with Congress a year and a half ago, President Obama declared Congress’ inaction and political posturing to be the reason he must take executive action. “I would sign an immigration bill into law today and Washington would solve a problem in a bipartisan way,” President Obama said. “For more than a year, Republicans in the house have refused to allow an up or down vote to fix our broken immigration system.”
“I take executive action only when we have a serious problem and Congress chooses to do nothing,” the President assured. The most chilling portion of his announcement was when he suggested, “American cannot wait forever for them to act. That’s why today, I’m beginning a new effort to fix our immigration system… on my own, without congress.“
The President’s official Twitter feed paraphrased with the following:
"Our country and our economy would be stronger today if House Republicans had held a simple yes-or-no vote." —President Obama #ActOnReform
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 30, 2014
"If Congress will not do their job, at least we can do ours." —President Obama #ActOnReform
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 30, 2014
"Pass a bill. Solve a problem. Don't just say no on something that everybody agrees needs to be done." —President Obama to House leadership
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 30, 2014
Speaker Boehner promptly responded, “It is sad and disappointing that – faced with this challenge – President Obama won’t work with us, but is instead intent on going it alone with executive orders that can’t and won’t fix these problems.” Boehner went on to say:
“The president’s own executive orders have led directly to the humanitarian crisis along the Southern border, giving false hope to children and their families that if they enter the country illegally they will be allowed to stay. The White House claims it will move to return these children to their families in their home countries, yet additional executive action from this president isn’t going to stem the tide of illegal crossings, it’s only going to make them worse. As the Supreme Court reminded us this week, under our Constitution there are sharp limits to what the president can accomplish if he ignores the American people and their elected representatives.”
Twitter responded as you might expect:
I wonder why Congress refuses to work with the guy who declares he will ignore them if they don't do what he wants?
— AG (@AG_Conservative) June 30, 2014
"Give me what I want or I'll just do it anyway" – Guy who has to remind us he's not a dictator.
— S.M (@redsteeze) June 30, 2014
Obama's plan on immigration is to threaten Congress with executive actions. Go home, Obama. You're not cut out for this stuff.
— RB (@RBPundit) June 30, 2014
I want #immigration reform done right through the Legislative process, not some temporary political bandaid. #latism
— Sam Rosado (@SamARosado) June 30, 2014
Open-borders usurper-in-chief blames everyone else for border crisis…while creating enormous new magnets & safety nets for illegal aliens.
— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) June 30, 2014
We can only hope this is nothing more than his typical political posturing and that no actual action will come from his reckless disregard of our check and balance system.
.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
No matter how many times SCOTUS slaps him down, Obama acts like a petulant child demanding he get things his own way.
The Catiline Conspiracy has followed us into the 21st century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Catilinarian_conspiracy
“. . . President Obama declared Congress’ inaction and political posturing to be the reason he must take executive action.”
And if inaction is the choice of the volitionally-chosen representatives of the people, then that is what the people want. To paraphrase someone, “[The Republicans] won.”
Dear [cough] Constitutional Scholar, Article I, Section 1 is a short, declarative sentence, “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
“All” means all, and that’s all that “All” means. And since “All” represents the entire field, there is NO room for legislation by executive order.
For a Constitutional Scholar, he surely has no idea what Article 1, Section 1 means. This is 5th grade civics. The Congress makes the laws, the President enforces the laws.
I hate to say that he should be impeached, but his actions must not go unchallenged or future presidents will look back at this as precedent. This has to be stopped. No one, not Reagan, Roosevelt, Lincoln or Washington had the right to say “if Congress won’t act, I will.” All he can do is what he is able to do WITHIN THE LAW.
Sadly, he has chosen not to “faithfully execute the laws” of this country.
Just to keep it real…
Baracula is NOT a “Constitutional scholar”.
Baracula is NOT a “Constitutional lawyer”.
He MAY have taught ConLaw, but it was very likely just a version of Critical Race Theory.
He is an outlaw. He is not constrained by any law, typical of the Collective to which he belongs.
Aye Aye . What ever happened to the expected post grad specialised legal qual ? I see no Masters in Con Law nor even practical experience eg in a Sup judges office as an assistant even at State Level .
Most law degrees are 3 years & Just because it is Harvard , they can’t have squished Consitutional specialties in there.
He was a bare grad teaching undergrads . Unthinkeable in almost every other legal education faculty. outside sausage factories.
Why. him & why not Michelle who was both real black & a real lawyer ( Harvard also ) .
Baracula is NOT a lawyer, period. He was never a lawyer … he got caught lying on his bar exam application and was denied.
Ms. Baracula WAS a lawyer, and was given a choice to surrender her law license or face criminal prosecution. She chose to surrender her law license, and those records are sealed. The rumor is she was involved with insurance fraud … but I have been unable to find much on that.
He did a few small cases in Chicago so I think he did get his licence .
An examination by President of all Executive Orders shows one FDR to be the undisputed champion of them. His blizzard of them occurred while the country was still inhabited by folks who’d grown up with more respect for the Constitution than modern schools teach. It’s demoralizing to see what a success he was at it, despite the numbers of citizens that must have recognized what a hash those orders made of Congress and the Supreme Court.
A nasty precedent, which undoubtedly inspires our President.
In the immortal words of Rush (the band)…
“If you chose not to decide, you still have made a choice”
Congress has chosen NOT to be coerced into ANOTHER catastrophic amnesty.
There has never been…ANYWHERE…an amnesty program that worked as advertised.
NEVER.
ANYWHERE.
At least not until the cause and effect are addressed. It’s suspicious, to say the least, that neither the illegal aliens nor their advocates, including Obama, desire to talk about the circumstances which motivate mass emigration nor the consequences for their “adoptive” communities.
Some governments of the past have had provision for a single person to rule by decree during certain emergencies. In the Classical era, this person was a “tyrant”.
The US Constitution has no such provision. The President has no legal legislative authority whatever. (Oddly enough, the Vice President has some, even if it isn’t much.) He has no power to suspend, dissolve, or bypass Congress, no matter what his excuse.
Executive Orders are merely instructions to personnel in various branches of the Executive department.
President Obama won’t work with us, but is instead intent on going it alone with executive orders that can’t and won’t fix these problems
There are some possible Executive Orders which would be perfectly legal and might have some positive effect on the problem. Obama could issue an Executive Order that the Border Patrol stop pussyfooting about and round up some criminals. Another Executive Order could authorize concentration camps, as FDR did in 1942 (though FDR authorized imprisonment of Americans, not foreign criminals).
Enough already – impeach the bastard. We don’t need tyrants, and we don’t need that jackass in the White House a minute longer.
High time to call a spade a spade.
Apparently the lecturer in chief has forgotten the subject he used to try to impart to young soon to be (leftist) lawyers. Congress gets to establish uniform rules for naturalization per article 1.
It’s time congress exercise one of its OTHER powers: the power to call up the militia to repel an invasion. Call them up, guns facing toward Mexico, and let’s see how many people try to cross the border. If you place one person every 100 yards, you only need 12,250 troops every 8 hour shift. Less due to areas where a fence has already been built and are regularly patrolled.
After that, uniform rules about being in the nation on a travel visa. No more slipping through the net.
Obama is protecting foreign interests to shift burden of responsibility and domestic interests to exploit Americans and aliens alike. What a guy!
Hey, Obama. Your kind abort/murder over one million Americans annually. Think of the children!
Oh, and reveal your ulterior motives. Clearly your interests are not humanitarian. Not for Americans, or their children; or the aliens, and their children, or the conditions which prompted a mass exodus.
So Mr. Boehner are you going to sue President Obama on each and every one of his Executive Orders as he makes them with an emergency court injunction to stay them until it can be heard in the SCOTUS?
This is your fault for not stopping him during his first term when you had the chance to arrest Eric Holder on the Contempt of Congress charge. Without Eric Holder writing a legal opinion on each and every Executive Order by Obama, NONE OF THEM CAN BE IMPLEMENTED. You know what you have to do Mr. Boehner either arrest Holder or begin impeachment proceedings against Obama.
You know he wants you to go the impeachment route as this takes the public focus off all his other scandals and makes it a contest between him and yourself. He is betting successfully so far that you will blink and he will do as he wishes. In Obama’s view of the Law, it’s not illegal IF you don’t stop him.
dscott,
There would not be a pres. Obama if the all or nothing pures who sat at home election day and third party voters
who enabled Obama’s presidency.
and first term, the speaker of the House was Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat. All branches were Democrat.
When I see Obama and the tp bashing Boehner, I know he must be doing a good job for America.
Truth! This comment deserves a thousand likes.
Boehner replaced Pelosi during Obama’s first term, don’t forget the 2010 election cycle. Boehner had his chance with Fast & Furious when Holder was found in Contempt of Congress.
You are correct though that this was the fault of the registered voters for allowing him to gain office by sitting out the election of 2008 and 2012 in protest against some crappy GOP candidates. I get the McCain sit out, but Romney one could hold their nose without a nose bleed. However, the fact is the stupid now out number those of average intelligence.
I propose a new gambling event, like an office football pool. In which every participant sends in a dollar, and submits a prediction with the number of Executive Orders by Obama which the next President alters or revokes in his/her first six months in office.
Congress HAS acted. That is why these millions are called “illegals”. They are breaking duly enacted law.
The problem is Obama breaks his oath and refuses to enforce the law, and fights governors that make any effort at enforcement. He essentially makes promises that all that come can stay, then complains that the invaders aren’t being made voting welfare armies, demanding more more more.
His solution is to make more promises that even if Congress won’t pass his amnesty, he will do it anyway, so keep coming. Obama is announcing to the world … “come one come all. America will provide … the Great Obama will redistribute all America’s wealth to provide for you.
President Obama: American cannot wait forever for them to act. That’s why today, I’m beginning a new effort to fix our immigration system… on my own, without congress.
The ellipses are a dead-giveaway.
President Obama: America cannot wait forever for them to act. That’s why today I’m beginning a new effort to fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own without Congress.
The complete statement clearly acknowledges the limitations of presidential power.
Or simply pays lip-service to them while scheming ways to usurp power from other branches. The long and short of it is that the president doesn’t really get to make a decision in this instance. The responsibility lies with Congress, and as a Constitutional grant of authority they cannot delegate it ( although they try).
Really here, the President has no authority to change ANYTHING in the system. He only has power to carry out what Congress has directed him to do, and should have no discretion in the matter
Chuck Skinner: Or simply pays lip-service to them while scheming ways to usurp power from other branches.
The fact that ellipses were used to remove just three very short words is indicative.
Chuck Skinner: Really here, the President has no authority to change ANYTHING in the system. He only has power to carry out what Congress has directed him to do, and should have no discretion in the matter
As executive, the president has a great deal of discretion, both constitutional and statutory.
But he has a great deal LESS than he’s been using.
And, even when he has it, he’s doing it wrong.
Or has that string of losses in the Supreme Court gone flying unmolested over your head…???
the president has a great deal of discretion
The oath of office removes most of it.
We need to expect from anyone who uses the phrase “immigration reform” what specific items in existing immigration law need reform:
http://www.uscis.gov/iframe/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/act.html
The Senate bill that President Obama refers to has a lot of rehash of our existing code with some bureaucracy added. Read maybe the first 100 pages and it will be clear why the House took a pass on that approach.
Other than an easy get-out-of-jail-free-card for “General classes of aliens ineligible to receive visas and ineligible for admission” (read our existing laws at the link above) what exactly is meant by “reform”?
There is already a path to citizenship. To affirm we respect those those who respect our laws and are waiting their turn in line, let’s reject all attempts to allow line-jumpers and law breakers to have their way.
there is some evidence that Obozo was not elected because purists sat home and didn’t vote, but was elected the first and certainly the second time by voter fraud, one precinct at a time. If blacks are 12% of the population, are there really enough of them to elect this guy?
sdharms: If blacks are 12% of the population, are there really enough of them to elect this guy?
Seriously?
Many non-blacks supported Obama.
Absolutely. Many un-Americans supported Baracula.
And quite a few stupids, too…
All American elections take place around the 50-50 mark. The really weird extremist stuff never makes it to national level. This is a function of the two-party system.
Such a system is vulnerable to perversion by a motivated and reliable voting block. Such a block controlling a mere 10 percent of the electorate is generally more than enough.
So, why are we still calling him “President”?
Has O. said “don’t call my bluff” lately?
He’s been prattling about this for quite a while now, but hasn’t actually done much, aside from convincing Mesoamerica that amnesty will happen any day now so they should pack themselves in as quickly as they can. Then he can claim some sort of crisis and … do nothing much about that, either.
It’s starting to look more and more like a bluff. Make enough threatening noises and maybe Congress can be stampeded into making one of those famous compromises in which Obama gets what he wants and nobody else gets anything worth having.
So far Boehner has’t fallen for it. Even though he doesn’t get much credit for it, he’s actually done a pretty good job of stringing the Dems along without actually giving them anything.