Earlier this week a federal court in Texas issued a temporary injunctive order preventing implementation of Obama’s immigration executive action. Following the order, the Obama Administration made it appear as though they were prepared to put their agenda on hold and take the fight over executive power to the courts.
I say “appear” because, in spite of the injunction, DHS is still making moves to award multi-million dollar contracts to the firms tasked with handling the processing of millions of illegal immigrants’ requests for amnesty. An anonymous source has described the deal as being rushed through at a “full throttle pace,” and a Request for Proposal filed by the USCIS details how the agency expects to pull off its latest bait-and-switch.
Judicial Watch has the details:
The RFP estimates that the population of potential requesters for the president’s deferred action will be “approximately four million people” and that USCIS anticipates the initial filing of “approximately five to six million forms” related to the amnesty order which also covers the illegal immigrant parents of U.S. citizens and lawful residents. The work is to begin in mid-March, the document reveals, and the contractor will operate out of a new center in Arlington, Virginia because there is no current facility with available space or staff to accommodate the “additional volume of work.” The center will be dedicated to processing deferred action for illegal immigrant parents of citizens, employment authorization and correspondence management.The pricing spreadsheets are astounding and list tens of thousands of work hours—for tasks such as program management, file operations and maintenance as well as Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) scanning—that will undoubtedly end up costing American taxpayers enormous sums. The contractor that lands this monstrous government deal must also be able to respond on short notice to growth in volume due to urgent events and requirements. “The growth is more than normal overtime and cannot be completed with overtime,” the government documents state.
It may be barred from implementing executive amnesty, but DHS is doing everything it can to prepare for the day when the ban is lifted:
The administration appears to have no intention of slowing down while the Justice Department drafts an appeal. JW’s government source confirms that, even after the court ruling, DHS is moving forward with its plan to seal large contracts with companies that will process millions of illegal immigrants as soon as possible. “There is no indication that the court order has impacted, slowed down or modified the procurement in any way,” the source said. “They’re really rushing into it.” The immense deal calls for 200 to 600 contractors, according to JW’s source.
600 contractors. Thousands of hours. Millions of dollars. The specs alone are enough to make any limited government advocate freeze in their tracks. From a logistical perspective, it’s probably smart for DHS to be prepared to implement the order, but the scope of their preparation shows how supremely confident this Administration is that they will overcome what has ballooned into a 26 state coup against executive overreach.
That, above all else, is what should have conservatives worried.
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