STEIN: Obama punts as Utah grants amnesty to illegals:

President tackles Arizona for upholding federal immigration law.

By Dan Stein
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The Washington Times

5:58 p.m., Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Last April, when Gov. Jan Brewer signed legislation authorizing Arizona to enforce federal immigration laws, President Obama stepped before the television cameras in the Rose Garden and threatened to take action to prevent the law from taking effect. Within weeks, his Justice Department filed suit against Arizona on the grounds that S.B. 1070 pre-empted the federal government's exclusive authority over immigration policy.

In contrast to Arizona’s effort to enforce immigration laws passed by Congress, the Utah legislature enacted legislation in March that creates a completely separate immigration policy for Utah. One of the bills signed by Gov. Gary Herbert would grant two-year work permits to illegal aliens who reside in Utah, provided they have no criminal records. Because federal law expressly forbids illegal aliens from working anywhere in the United States - including Utah - the law gives the governor until 2013 to negotiate a waiver with the federal government. Even if a waiver is not issued, Utah would begin issuing work permits to illegal aliens beginning in 2013.

The 1986 federal law prohibiting the employment of illegal aliens does not include provisions for waivers - a point that was noted by Utah’s own legislative attorneys. Thus, the executive branch has no authority to negotiate, much less issue, a waiver that would allow Utah to turn illegal aliens into legal guest workers. To do so would require the Obama administration to invalidate unilaterally a federal statute.

A second piece of legislation signed by Mr. Herbert grants Utahans the right to sponsor up to two foreign individuals, or one entire family, to live in Utah. Utahans, like other Americans, already enjoy the right to sponsor immigrants to the United States provided that they fall within the parameters and quotas established under federal law. Thus, any immigrant intending to settle in Utah must first be granted a visa by the federal government, as states lack any legal authority to admit immigrants.

To date, the only reaction from the Department of Justice to Utah’s blatant usurpation of the federal government's exclusive authority over the power to regulate immigration has been a vague statement that they are “monitoringâ€