White House says Obama won’t pardon illegals
White House says Obama won’t pardon illegals
http://twt-thumbs.washtimes.com/medi...ff925c15dfe423
Yesenia Del Carmen 8, carries a cross reading “No to the Deportations,” “as she and her grandmother join an immigrant-rights supporters “Procession of the Cross” walk, led by U.S.-born children from the Federal building to the Cathedral of Our Lady ... more >
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Tuesday, November 29, 2016
The White House’s top immigration staffer said President Obama won’t pardon illegal immigrants before the end of his term, dashing hopes of activists who had pleaded for Mr. Obama to use his powers to shield hundreds of thousands of Dreamers from deportation.
White House Domestic Policy Council Director Cecilia Munoz, in a podcast interview with the Center for Migration Studies, said they’ve concluded a pardon wouldn’t apply to immigration cases — and wouldn’t be a permanent solution anyway.
“It’s not an answer here,” she said.
The decision will be a severe disappointment to immigrant-rights activists, who had rallied this month to demand the president use his pardon powers en masse.
They pointed to mass pardons for Vietnam war draft dodgers and Confederate troops after the Civil War as precedent and said the same principle could be used on more than 740,000 Dreamers — young adult illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, and whom Mr. Obama granted a deportation amnesty under his 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“President Obama has the power of pardons that he can use to protect all DACA enrollees,” the advocates said in their statement calling the rally.
Mr. Obama had initially been coy when asked in the days after the election whether he could do more to protect Dreamers from deportation during a Trump administration.
Mr. Munoz, though, said they’ve concluded a pardon doesn’t apply.
“I know people are hoping that pardon authority is a way to protect people. It’s ultimately not for a couple reasons. One is that pardon authority is generally designed for criminal violations, not civil. But also it doesn’t confer legal status. Only Congress can do that. So ultimately it wouldn’t protect a single soul from deportation,” she said in the podcast interview.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...rdon-illegals/