Dems: Let illegals work, or they'll break even more laws
By Pete Kasperowicz • 12/5/15 12:01 AM
Democrats argued in a Friday brief to the Supreme Court that not allowing illegal immigrants to work in the United States is a bad idea, because those immigrants could be forced to break other laws as they look for ways to make a living "in the shadows."
Obama's executive action from a year ago was aimed at sparing millions of illegal immigrants from deportation and allowing them to work. Two federal courts have put the action on hold, which prompted the Obama administration to push the case to the Supreme Court.
Republicans have said illegal immigrants are lawbreakers by definition, and say even if some are low priority for deportation, they shouldn't be given extra incentive to stay by being given work permits.
But on Friday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said denying illegals work permits would only make them become even bigger lawbreakers.
"If individuals deemed to present low-priority cases for enforcement... were denied the ability to work lawfully, many would have no means of survival other than illegal activity," they wrote.
The "friend of the court" brief from Democrats also argued that not letting illegal immigrants work would give them even less incentive to report to authorities, although Republicans say most are flouting this responsibility anyway.
"The secretary could properly determine that such a situation would undermine the incentive for unauthorized immigrants to report themselves to the Department of Homeland Security, impair the government's ability to keep track of such individuals, and perpetuate a situation in which millions of individuals live 'in the shadows," they wrote.
More broadly, the Democratic brief rejected the lower court rulings, and said Obama's executive action on immigration was a "permissible exercise of the discretion that Congress" gave to the Executive Branch. The brief said limited resources means the White House must have the discretion to focus on deporting only high-priority illegal immigrants, not all of them.
"The court of appeals has overturned, as contrary to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), a practical judgment by the Secretary of Homeland Security about how to channel the government's limited immigration enforcement resources toward categories of individuals likely to pose a danger to the public interest rather than the millions of individuals who do not," they wrote.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/de...rticle/2577694