Feinstein: If Obama Acts Unilaterally on Immigration, It ‘Will Be Challenged’

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, that President Barack Obama bypasses Congress and takes unilateral action on immigration “it would be legally…


Feinstein: If Obama Acts Unilaterally on Immigration, It ‘Will Be Challenged’


September 8, 2014 - 10:47 AM
By Terence P. Jeffrey
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Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.)

(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.), the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that if President Barack Obama bypasses Congress and takes unilateral action on immigration “it would be legally challenged.”
On Friday, at a press conference in Wales, Obama said that if Congress did not pass the sort of immigration reform he wants, he would take unilateral action that would include allowing foreign nationals now illegally in the United States to “be legal.”
“What I’m unequivocal about is that we need immigration reform; that my overriding preference is to see Congress act,” said Obama. “We had bipartisan action in the Senate. The House Republicans have sat on it for over a year. That has damaged the economy, it has held America back. It is a mistake. Andin the absence of congressional action, I intend to take action tomake sure that we’re putting more resources on the border, that we’re upgrading how we process these cases, and that we find a way to encourage legal immigration and give people some path so that they can start paying taxes and pay a fine and learn English and be able to not look over their shoulder but be legal, since they’ve been living here for quite some time.”

video at this link
http://www.mrctv.org/videos/feinstei...-be-challenged

The next day, the Associated Press reported, citing unnamed White House officials, that Obama had decided to put off taking unilateral executive action until after the mid-term elections. On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Obama said the he was not delaying unilateral action because he was worried about the impact it might have on the midterm elections but because he wanted to “make sure the T’s are crossed and the I’s dotted” and that, in the wake of the surge of unaccompanied children who came across the border this summer, people understand why the action he is contemplating is necessary.
“Not only do I want to make sure that the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted. But here is the other thing, Chuck, and I`m being honest now, about the politics of it,” Obama told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd. “This problem with unaccompanied children that we saw a couple weeks ago, where you had from Central America a surge of kids who were showing up at the border got a lot of attention, and a lot of Americans started thinking, we’ve got this immigration crisis on our hands. And what I want to do is, when I take executive action, I want to make sure that it’s sustainable.”
“What I`m saying,” Obama said a moment later, “is that I’m going to act because it’s the right thing for the country, but it’s going to be more sustainable and more effective if the public understands what the facts are on immigration, what we`ve done on unaccompanied children and why it`s necessary.”
On CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, host Candy Crowley asked Sen. Feinstein if Obama damaged his credibility with the Latino community by delaying executive action on immigration.
“Well, I have no knowledge of what he can do legally under an executive order,” said Feinstein. “I also believe it would be legally challenged. The Senate has spent, under the leadership of Pat Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, literally months on a bill, a comprehensive bill, 100 amendments, week after week after week. It is a good bill.
“All the House would have to do is pass one part of that bill,” said Feinstein. “We could conference it, work out the differences, and we would have an immigration bill which would be strong.”
Crowley followed up: “But the president says, look, I'm going to do this after the election. Politics are at play here, yes? Can we state the obvious?”
“Well,” said Feinstein, “I’m of the opinion that the way this should be done is legislatively, because anything else will be challenged, and probably will not be nearly the bill that is actually needed to solve the problems.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/...ion-it-will-be






Obama Says He Will Unilaterally Legalize Illegal Aliens


September 6, 2014 - 12:14 PM
By Terence P. Jeffrey


President Barack Obama speaks at a news conference at the NATO summit at Celtic Manor, Newport, Wales, Friday, Sept. 5, 2014. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)


(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama said in a press conference in Wales on Friday afternoon that although his "preference is to see Congress act," he intends to take unilateral action to give illegal aliens “some path” to “be legal” if Congress does not enact the sort immigration legislation he wants.
The Associated Press reported on Saturday that unnamed White House officials had told the news organization that Obama would wait until after the midterm elections to make his move on immigration.
The Constitution of the United States gives Congress—not the Executive--authority over immigration. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution says: “Congress shall have power…to establish a uniform rule of naturalization.”
The president announced his intention to unilaterally grant immigration lawbreakers living illegally in the United States “some path…to be legal” in a wordy, multipronged answer to a reporter’s question.

video at this link
http://www.mrctv.org/videos/obama-sa...illegal-aliens


Here is the verbatim transcript of the reporter’s question and the president’s answer, as posted by the White House:

Colleen Nelson, Wall Street Journal: “Thank you, Mr. President. Some say that Democrats who are facing tough races in November have asked you to delay action on immigration. How have the concerns of other Democrats influenced your thinking? And do you see any downside at this point to delaying until after the election?”
President Obama: “I have to tell you that this week I’ve been pretty busy, focused on Ukraine and focused on ISIL and focused on making sure that NATO is boosting its commitments, and following through on what’s necessary to meet 21st century challenges.
“Jeh Johnson and Eric Holder have begun to provide me some of their proposals and recommendations. I’ll be reviewing them. And my expectation is that fairly soon I’ll be considering what the next steps are.
“What I’m unequivocal about is that we need immigration reform; that my overriding preference is to see Congress act. We had bipartisan action in the Senate. The House Republicans have sat on it for over a year. That has damaged the economy, it has held America back. It is a mistake. And in the absence of congressional action, I intend to take action to make sure that we’re putting more resources on the border, that we’re upgrading how we process these cases, and that we find a way to encourage legal immigration and give people some path so that they can start paying taxes and pay a fine and learn English and be able to not look over their shoulder but be legal, since they’ve been living here for quite some time.
“So I suspect that on my flight back this will be part of my reading, taking a look at some of the specifics that we’ve looked at. And I’ll be making an announcement soon.
“But I want to be very clear: My intention is, in the absence of action by Congress, I’m going to do what I can do within the legal constraints of my office--because it’s the right thing to do for the country. Thank you very much, people of Wales. I had a wonderful time.”
On Saturday morning, the Associated Press published a story reporting that White House official were saying that Obama would delay unilateral action on immigration until after the midterm elections.
“Two White House officials said Obama concluded that circumventing Congress through executive actions on immigration during the campaign would politicize the issue and hurt future efforts to pass a broad overhaul,” the AP reported.
“The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president's decision before it was announced, said Obama made his decision Friday as he returned to Washington from a NATO summit in Wales,” said the AP.
“The officials said Obama had no specific timeline to act, but that he still would take his executive steps before the end of the year,” the AP said.
“White House officials said aides realized that if Obama's immigration action was deemed responsible for Democratic losses this year, it could hurt any attempt to pass a broad overhaul later on,” said the AP.
The Pew Research Center has estimated that there were 11.3 million illegal aliens in the United States as of March 2013.

 Obama Says He Will Unilaterally Legalize Illegal Aliens


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