Obama's move on immigration is an unconstitutional disaster for the unemployed
Obama's move on immigration is an unconstitutional disaster for the unemployed
y Roy Beck Published June 15, 2012
FoxNews.com
President Obama thwarted the will of Congress and shunned the 20 million under- and unemployed Americans by announcing he will grant work permits to 2 million to 3 million illegal workers. This unconstitutional fiat ignores the rule of law and bypasses Congress, which on three occasions rejected DREAM Act amnesties in part to protect unemployed workers born here or who came here legally.
We have a long tradition of election-year pandering by sitting presidents, but it is hard to recall when a president has proposed a measure so destructive to the most vulnerable of our society. With the growing whispers of a very popular Sen. Marco Rubio’s addition to the presidential ticket and Mitt Romney about to embark on a nationwide bus tour, the president needed something big to dominate the news headlines. However, running the risk of being greeted by boos at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials is not worth forcing African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans without higher education who live with high chronic unemployment and underemployment to compete with 2 million to 3 million additional job seekers.
This knee-jerk response to criticism by open borders advocates is a short term political payoff and an attempt to shore up special interest support with an unworkable proposal. Like the failed DREAM Act, the proposal by the president grants indentured service status to illegal immigrants less than 31 years old with no serious criminal history who were brought here before age 16. In essence the president has launched a cottage fraudulent-document industry.
The president continues to repeat the talking point the he is acting only "in the absence of any immigration action from Congress to fix our broken immigration system." But Congress did act on the DREAM Act. It acted three times and rejected the measure on each occasion.
The Constitution gives immigration policy powers to Congress alone. The president has no authority to give a de facto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. And doing so right now is a stab in the back to the 20 million Americans who can’t find a full-time job.
Republican leadership in Congress up until now has stood by, terrified to tackle immigration priorities. House Speaker John Boehner and his leadership team are currently center stage in blocking a bill that would provide employment for millions of Americans by moving illegal immigrants from the very construction, hospitality, manufacturing, service and transportation jobs sought by most unemployed U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.
