Jun 25, 2012

Scalia hits Obama on immigration policy

By David Jackson, USA TODAY Updated 36m ago

By Manuel Balce Ceneta, APIn dissenting from today's ruling striking down most of the Arizona immigration law, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia took a swipe at President Obama's new immigration policy.

Scalia noted that "after this case was argued and while it was under consideration" -- on June 15 to be precise -- the Obama administration announced it would stop deporting the children of illegal immigrants, provided they meet certain criteria.

"There has come to pass, and is with us today, the specter that Arizona and the states that support it predicted," Scalia wrote: "A federal government that does not want to enforce the immigration laws as written, and leaves the states' borders unprotected against immigrants whom those laws would exclude."

Commenting on his order earlier this week, Obama said he acted because Congress has not moved on efforts at comprehensive immigration legislation, including a proposal affecting the children of illegal immigrants.

In a statement on today's court decision, Obama said that "we will continue to enforce our immigration laws by focusing on our most important priorities like border security and criminals who endanger our communities, and not, for example, students who earn their education.

"Which is why," he added, "the Department of Homeland Security announced earlier this month that it will lift the shadow of deportation from young people who were brought to the United States as children through no fault of their own."

Scalia spotlighted the president's earlier statement in his dissent:

The President said at a news conference that the new program is "the right thing to do" in light of Congress's failure to pass the Administration's proposed revision of the Immigration Act. Perhaps it is, though Arizona may not think so.

But to say, as the Court does, that Arizona contradicts federal law by enforcing applications of the Immigration Act that the President declines to enforce boggles the mind.

Scalia hits Obama on immigration policy