Deportation policy: Decree undermines law, harms jobless Americans
oregonlive.com/opinion
Guest Columnist
By Richard F. LaMountain
Saturday, September 03, 2011, 4:00 AM

The Obama administration recently announced it would employ "prosecutorial discretion" to suspend action against many of the 300,000 illegal immigrants facing deportation who don't, in the administration's view, threaten national security or public safety.

With this move, the administration scored a dubious trifecta. It undermined respect for, and Americans' right to implement, U.S. law. It darkened the employment prospects of millions of jobless U.S. citizens. And it encouraged even more foreigners to enter our nation illegally.

First, to the issue's core. Our nation's stability -- and, indeed, sovereignty -- is only as strong as the respect its citizens, and citizens of other nations, accord its law. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano downplayed the new action's diminution of law by dismissing most of the affected illegal immigrants as "low-priority" cases on whom "it makes no sense to expend our enforcement resources."

But such judgment is not hers, or even the president's, to make. Via the representatives they have elected to Congress, the American people have instituted clear, specific laws regarding who may enter their nation, when and in what numbers -- and stipulating that those who come here illegally, with extraordinarily few exceptions, will be returned to their home countries. Not one of these laws have they deemed "low priority."

But now, by bureaucratic fiat -- and contrary to President Barack Obama's oath to uphold U.S. law -- the administration has decided that, for some illegal immigrants, these laws make "no sense" and will not be enforced. Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, is blunt: "Never, in the history of federal immigration enforcement, has an administration ... so egregiously usurped Congress' and the people's role to decide immigration issues."

Second: as reported by The New York Times' Robert Pear, administration officials affirmed that "those who qualify for relief can apply for permission to work in the United States and will probably receive it." What this means: In coming months, tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants likely will be cleared to hold or seek U.S. jobs -- at a time when some 22 million Americans and legal residents, including more than 380,000 in Oregon, are unemployed or working only part time. This, simply put, is immoral.

And last, notes Americans for Immigration Control, the administration's action "says in effect to all illegal aliens -- and people in foreign countries who are thinking about coming here illegally -- that you will have no problem staying here if you can simply refrain from murdering people and committing other serious felonies." Intentionally or not, then, the administration has put out the welcome mat for even more illegal immigrants.

Through their elected Congress, Americans have the right to determine their nation's immigration policies. But now, the Obama administration has given much of that right away -- to the very people, indeed, who broke our law to get here. Oregonians should demand that their congressional delegation fight this action -- and champion, instead, the rule of law and the employment prospects of our own citizens.

Richard F. LaMountain, a former assistant editor of Conservative Digest magazine, serves on the board of directors of Oregonians for Immigration Reform. He lives in Cedar Mill.

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