Thread: WH Adviser: Letting Certain Illegals Stay and Work in U.S. 'Fully Within Our Ability'

By Susan Jones
June 18, 2012
CNS News

(CNSNews.com) - Why did President Obama wait so long to announce a change in immigration policy -- and was he right to bypass Congress in doing so? CNN's Candy Crowly put those questions to senior White House adviser David Plouffe on Sunday.

"Let me ask you about the immigration decision that was made Friday and read you something from George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley who said the president is using executive power to do things congress has refused to do, and that does fit a disturbing pattern of expansion of executive power under President Obama," Crowley asked Plouffe. "In many ways, he has fulfilled the dream of an imperial presidency that Richard Nixon strived for. This is a president who is now functioning as a super legislator. Why did you, a, wait this long to do this? And b, isn't the appropriate place to make these decisions congress which passes the laws, immigration law in particular?"

Plouffe said it was a matter of "discretion in enforcement."

"Well, first, let's start with this is a decision the Department of Homeland Security made," said Plouffe. "This is, so that they have the discretion in enforcement so that we focus on criminals and those that cause or could endanger our communities and that is where the focus of our immigration enforcement efforts need to be. These kids who want to serve in our military who are going to college they're working in our businesses, they now can apply--is not a permanent fix by the way.

Crowley followed up: "You went around Congress is the point. I understand the policy, and the reasons for it.":

"If Congress would act," Plouffe said, "we would be happy to sign the DREAM Act tomorrow."

"But there are three branches of government," said Crowley. "You know how this works."

"This is fully within our ability," said Plouffe. "This, and again, this was an enforcement discretion decision. So this is not some permanent, this is not amnesty, this is not citizenship, this gives these hardworking kids who are hear through no fault of their own who are going to staff our labs, start our businesses, serve in our military, the ability for a two year period to apply for work authorization.We need a permanent fix. The only way to do that, we agree, is for Congress to pass the DREAM Act."

Crowley noted that the Obama administration could have changed immigration enforcement policy in any one of the last three years--but instead, it is happening five months before the election.

"It was not done with some political consideration," Crowley said.

"It was not, Candy," Plouffe replied.

"Five months before the election?" Crowley asked.

"Well, listen, who knows how the politics will turn out, but this decision was the right decision..."

"And how can you say that?" Crowley asked.

"Well, we'll see. I have ceased making predictions on things, because we will see how they turn out."

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," said he's troubled that the President of the United States "is now dictating that certain laws will not be enforced. That is a rather serious step. It's one thing to say you're not going to challenge a law in court or something like that, but I don't recall a time when any president has basically said, we're not going to enforce a law that's on the books."

McCain said if President Obama were really serious about immigration reform, he would speak with "some of us who have been involved in this issue."

McCain noted that Obama, in 2008, pledged to undertake comprehensive immigration reform: "He had overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress. Nothing was done, no proposal was made."

Mccain said he thinks the president's announcement on Friday "is obviously a way to divert attention from very bad news the president's had for the last three or four weeks."

WH Adviser: Letting Certain Illegals Stay and Work in U.S. 'Fully Within Our Ability' | CNSNews.com

This commentary echos this article.

DREAMs From The Amateur

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posted at 4:42 pm on June 18, 2012 by Jorge Bonilla
[ Congress ]

President Barack Obama’s recent immigration announcement was not just an obvious craven pander to Hispanics designed to rapidly muster a dwindling base. It was also an amateur move which may well poison the waters of our immigration policy debate for decades to come.
First of all, let us dispense with the narrative that this was an organic move, an “evolution” á la Obama’s gay marriage. It was not. I will posit that the move was long planned, and well-baked into the current electoral cake. I know this is true because the immigration announcement rollout almost mirrors Obama’s gay-marriage pattern. There was a celebrity fundraiser (at Marc Anthony’s), a conveniently-timed newsweekly splash piece, and a post-facto celebrity endorsement. If you look closely enough, you’ll even find a “Sasha and Malia” reference. There was no coming-out sitdown interview, though. None was needed this time because Obama tipped his hand way back in Cartagena, as the rest of the world tittered at Hookergate.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUYPUIshDPQ]
When the President of the United States interjects “but” after “we are a nation of laws”, it is further factual evidence of his contempt for the Rule of Law…which should be of no surprise to anyone, given this regime’s track record. In a sane world, people come out of their skulls. In this one, our sycophant media hails the politics of lawlessness and calls it good optics. Instead we should be asking, as loudly as possible, what kind of message this sends to those who paid the price to come to this country legally. How do we look people in the eye and continue to say that we respect the Rule of Law? (Full disclosure: I support the Rubio plan.)
The amateurishness of this decision is self-evident in its utter destruction of any good will and consensus for short-term political gain. In a nutshell…Marco Rubio, David Rivera, and Raúl Labrador were kneecapped so that god-king Barack might have his very own ”Mission Accomplished” moment at this week’s NALEO conference in Orlando.
I can’t wait to see how the Administration is going to “seasonally adjust” 800,000 to 1.4 million new job-seekers off the labor participation rate…but wait.

Cecilia Muñoz, the newly-appointed director of Domestic Policy Council, said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not completed all of the steps necessary to close the cases, and that preliminary numbers released to some media outlets on Thursday could either increase or decrease once the procedure is done.
“We’re talking about a process that’s just starting,” Muñoz said in Spanish during a roundtable with Latino media outlets. “DHS has said they’re still conducting background checks and other procedures, so these are not the final numbers.”

and…

DHS is set to extend the program to immigration courts across the nation in the coming months, but Muñoz says that the preliminary results of the pilot program should not be used as an indicator of how many people could benefit from the nationwide review.
“We didn’t start with an idea of what percentage [of cases would be closed] because that’s something that needs to be decided case-by-case,” she said. “It’s impossible to start with a certain idea about how many people will fall under each category because it’s something that can’t be determined in advance.”
Still, Muñoz says that if those do end up being the results nationwide, roughly 40,000 cases would be closed. She added that individuals whose cases are closed can apply for a work permit, but that “nothing is guaranteed” since they are still subject to existing laws.

You don’t suppose that this Administration would, in the heat of a brutal reelection, roll out a high-profile executive action that gets a lot of people’s hopes up only to later dissapoint and not cover nearly as many people as expected…would you?
I leave you with remarks I recently made while calling in to Stan Galarza’s morning show, which seem even more prescient today. Hit the CC button if you “no habla”.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7yNKOQwdDA&feature=plcp]



DREAMs From The Amateur « The Greenroom

Ask Romney to stand against Obama AMNESTY for Illegals!

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http://www.alipac.us/f8/ask-mitt-rom...4/#post1287866