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The Next Border Crisis: How Congress can fight Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty
Washington Free Beacon ^ | 11/14/2013 | Matthew Continetti

Posted on 11/14/2014 7:21:19 PM PST by SeekAndFind

Last summer the southern border disappeared. Unaccompanied minors from Central and South America surged across the Rio Grande. Desperate parents had sent their children thousands of miles north. The impoverished girls and boys were housed in ramshackle facilities before being sent elsewhere. The images were heartbreaking. They seemed drawn from a post-apocalyptic future. And they were entirely preventable.

Government policy caused the border crisis of 2014. Not the 2008 law granting special protections to unaccompanied minors from countries other than Mexico, an ex post facto explanation meant to blame George W. Bush. It was after Obama’s 2012 authorization of deferred action and work permits for illegal immigrants who arrived in the United States as children that such migration spiked. This blatant political move, as well as the president’s repeated pledge to amnesty the rest of the illegal migrant population, spurred the uptick in border crossings. The humanitarian tragedy followed.

Now Obama wants to repeat history. Indeed, he wants to expand the 2012 program so that it encompasses not hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants but millions of them. As first reported by Fox News Channel, the president may soon announce a 10-point plan that legalizes some 4.5 million illegal immigrants, offers 500,000 tech workers and their spouses (and later, their extended families) a path to citizenship, and increases opportunities for illegal immigrants to become naturalized by joining the military. A pay raise for immigration enforcement officers and token border security measures are also under consideration.

Not only would a presidential declaration of such measures insult legal immigrants as well as the voters who repudiated the president, his policies, and his party on November 4. Not only would it very likely provoke a constitutional crisis. The executive order would establish the incentives for the next wave of families to show up on an unprotected and unprepared southern border.

The 150 million adults worldwide who would move to the United States if given the chance will draw the conclusion that their status and future are secure as long as they end up on U.S. soil. Pay the snakeheads and coyotes, avoid the authorities, and fall under the next amnesty. Just as it happened in 1986 and happened again, piecemeal, in 2012 and 2014.

I do not consider it humanitarian to induce people to undertake perilous and uncertain journeys through hazardous territory in the hopes of joining a population that is at best ambivalent about them. I think it is cruel. And it is cruel not only to the immigrants, but also to American citizens, who must cope with the attendant fall in low-skilled job opportunities and wages, rising inequality, economic and social consequences of population density, and erosion of social cohesion. These are all reasons confidence in public institutions is at a low. Obama’s executive order will drive it lower.

How to fight him? Begin with the lame-duck session of Congress. The GOP cannot allow Harry Reid to pass a continuing resolution that funds the government through the rest of the fiscal year, thereby depriving Republicans of the opportunity to address executive amnesty using its departmental budgets.

“Using the normal appropriations process, with bills the House has already drafted,” write the editors of National Review, the Republican Congress “can attach riders regarding, say, prosecution of illegal immigrants to Homeland Security funding, or power-plant regulations to EPA funding.”

Such riders are the best weapons Republicans have to delay and undermine harmful and constitutionally dubious policies such as executive amnesty. To unilaterally disarm would be worse than stupid. It would be a betrayal.

Next, prepare concurrent resolutions censuring the president for his reckless disregard for the legislature. Impeachment is a dead-end street. It won’t happen, it will energize the Democrats, it is exactly what the president wants, and in the utopian event it succeeds it would leave the country with President Joe Biden. I fail to see how that would be an improvement.

A censure resolution puts Congress on the record opposing presidential lawmaking and reasserting its constitutional authority as the first branch of government. Censure preserves congressional integrity. The alternative is passivity. “Filing lawsuits that ask courts to referee the disputes” between the executive and legislative branches of government, writes Christopher DeMuth Sr. in the Weekly Standard, “is constitutionally supine and risks involving the judiciary in continuous supervision of the political branches.”

Not long ago Republican politicians wanted to be known as constitutional conservatives. Here is their chance to prove it.

Finally, refuse the president’s hostage threat. He says he will revoke any executive order if Congress passes legislation accomplishing the same end. Who does he think he is? Luca Brasi? The House hasn’t passed the Senate bill authored by Chuck Schumer because a majority of the House Republican caucus opposes it. Laws are not supposed to pass unless they embody the sense of the community. The entire community. That’s why we have two chambers of Congress and three branches of government.

Moreover, the party behind the Schumer bill lost the Senate after it was passed, with several Republican candidates running on opposition to legalization before the border is secure. And Obama expects them to give Schumer a victory nonetheless? This is lunacy. It would be oddly funny if it weren’t so dangerous.

Boehner and McConnell can announce a simple rule: No immigration reform if Obama commits such a brazen and unconstitutional act. No piecemeal bills. One bill: border security legislation authorizing the construction of an actual wall (call it infrastructure spending) and making E-Verify compulsory.

Such measures do not preclude legalizing the population of illegal immigrants. They are prerequisites for it. They are not anti-immigrant. They are anti-illegal immigrant. They are not part of the corporate agenda of comprehensive reform, fast-track authority, and corporate tax cuts. They are part of a middle class agenda of family tax relief, sound money, and replacing Obamacare. Nor is that a weakness. It’s a strength.

Obama will veto an enforcement bill. Budget politics and censure won’t prevent the next surge across the border. They won’t stop the next humanitarian crisis. But at least Congress will have used the opportunity to reassert its prerogatives and position the Republicans as the party of rule of law and secure borders.

It will take more than replacing Obama to truly reform the nation’s immigration law. It will take a president, Republican or Democrat, for whom the phrase “We, the People of the United States” has more than rhetorical meaning.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: amnesty; executiveorder; immigration; obama

1 posted on 11/14/2014 7:21:19 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Cut ... off ... the ... money. ;-)


2 posted on 11/14/2014 7:22:46 PM PST by doc1019
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To: doc1019

Revoke the order.


3 posted on 11/14/2014 7:23:45 PM PST by Eddie01 (Liberals lie about everything all the time.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Whatever it takes to give him a permanent vacation in another country works for me.


4 posted on 11/14/2014 7:23:52 PM PST by jsanders2001
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To: Eddie01

Does anybody outside of the Oval office have the authority to revoke an executive order?


5 posted on 11/14/2014 7:25:58 PM PST by doc1019
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To: jsanders2001

I’m sure he’ll be a contender for Grand Caliph of ISIS.
They stole half a bil from Iraq banks, so they have plenty of dough to hire experienced executives.


6 posted on 11/14/2014 7:26:14 PM PST by nascarnation (Impeach, Convict, Deport)
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To: doc1019
Cut ... off ... the ... money. ;-)

Tax Reform Amendment Fiscal Responsibility Amendment
Section I
No tax, fee, fine, or judgement —federal, State, or subdivision of either— shall ever be withheld from any wage.

Section II
No property shall be seized for failure to pay taxes until after conviction in a jury trial; the right of the jury to nullify (and thereby forgive) this debt shall never be questioned or denied.

Section III
The second amendment is hereby recognized as restricting the power of taxation, both federal and state, therefore no tax (or fine) shall be laid upon munitions or the sale thereof.

Section IV
The seventh amendment is also hereby recognized, and nothing in this amendment shall restrict the right of a citizen to seek civil redress.

Section V
No income tax levied by the federal government, the several States, or any subdivision of either shall ever exceed 10%.

Section VI
No income tax levied by the federal government, the several States, or any subdivision of either shall ever apply varying rates to those in its jurisdiction.

Section VII
No retrospective, retroactive or ex post facto tax, fee, or fine shall ever be valid; nor shall the Congress delegate the creation of any tax, fee, or fine in any way; nor shall Congress give any credit, exemption, or deduction to any person or class of persons whatsoever.

Section VIII
No federal employee, representative, senator, judge, justice or agent shall ever be exempt from any tax, fine, or fee by virtue of their position.

Section IX
Any federal employee, representative, senator, judge, justice or agent abridging, attempting to abridge, or otherwise circumventing this amendment shall, upon conviction, be evicted from office and all retirement benefits forfeit.
Section I
The power of Congress to regulate the value of the dollar is hereby rescinded.

Section II
The value of the Dollar shall be one fifteen-hundredth avoirdupois ounce of gold of which impurities do not exceed one part per thousand.

Section III
To guard against Congress using its authority over weights and measures to bypass Section I, the ounce in Section II is approximately 28.3495 grams (SI).

Section IV
The Secretary of the Treasury shall annually report the gold physically in its possession; this report shall be publicly available.

Section V
The power of the Congress to assume debt is hereby restricted: the congress shall assume no debt that shall cause the total obligations of the United States to exceed one hundred ten percent of the amount last reported by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Section VI
Any government agent, officer, judge, justice, employee, representative, or congressman causing gold to be confiscated from a citizen shall be tried for theft and upon conviction shall:
    a. be removed from office (and fired, if an employee),
    b. forfeit all pension and retirement benefits,
    c. pay all legal costs, and
    d. restore to the bereaved twice the amount in controversy.

Section VII
The federal government shall assume no obligation lacking funding, neither shall it lay such obligation on any of the several States, any subdivision thereof, or any place under the jurisdiction of the United States. All unfunded liabilities heretofore assumed by the United States are void.

Section VIII
The federal government shall make all payments to its employees or the several states in physical gold. Misappropriation, malfeasance and/or misfeasance of funds shall be considered confiscation and theft.
How's that?
7 posted on 11/14/2014 7:37:16 PM PST by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Quote from a person who posted an earlier message here: The schools have no choice when it comes to providing K-12 education. SCOTUS made that mandatory with Plyler vs Doe in 1982. Here in Fairfax County, Virginia we pay $104 million a year for ESOL instruction for 31,000 students.

*******

My post: That 1982 Supreme Court ruling is the reason we need Constitutional amendments like the following to try to control illegal immigration:

1. "School attendance: Only citizens, legal residents, those with special student visas can attend elementary, high school, and colleges in the United States."

2. "One parent must be a citizen before a newborn child is given automatic citizenship."

3. Felony: We must finally get very serious and declare that crossing the border illegally is a felony. It sounds mean to call it a felony, but we must do it, if we will ever have any chance of controlling our borders. Having the same illegals crossing our borders over and over is wrong,wrong, and wrong.

Illegal immigrant parents come to the United States for the wonderful benefits that their children can receive, like a quality education and great health care. Can you blame them for making the dangerous, long trip with their young children, or sending their children by themselves with the hope that the United States will automatically let them stay?

I don't understand how a child can illegally cross the southern border one day and automatically be eligible to enroll in public school the next day. That is wrong.

8 posted on 11/14/2014 7:39:59 PM PST by john mirse
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To: OneWingedShark

Gee, give me a minute ... LOL! Thanks for the feedback, will have to have a little time to digest this info. ;-)


9 posted on 11/14/2014 7:41:54 PM PST by doc1019
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To: SeekAndFind

If he does this, we have a dictator, not a President.


10 posted on 11/14/2014 7:46:36 PM PST by The_Media_never_lie (The media must be defeated any way it can be done.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Bookmarked.


11 posted on 11/14/2014 7:53:52 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (NRA)
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To: SeekAndFind

12 posted on 11/14/2014 7:59:37 PM PST by 4Liberty (Prejudice and generalizations. That's how Collectivists roll......)
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To: doc1019
Does anybody outside of the Oval office have the authority to revoke an executive order?

*****

In another ten years, 2024, I expect we will have another executive order giving amnesty to another 5,000,000 illegals from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

But I see a future problem: In 2024, there won't be anybody left in those countries, because by that time, they will all be here, and living in American comfort in places like California and Miami, Florida. Oh, well.

13 posted on 11/14/2014 8:09:21 PM PST by john mirse
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To: SeekAndFind

This article should be sent to all Congressional offices registered mail so they can never claim to not being informed of these parlimentary procedures.


14 posted on 11/14/2014 8:30:17 PM PST by SpaceBar
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To: doc1019

yes and the following is the key :

How to fight him? Begin with the lame-duck session of Congress. The GOP cannot allow Harry Reid to pass a continuing resolution that funds the government through the rest of the fiscal year, thereby depriving Republicans of the opportunity to address executive amnesty using its departmental budgets


15 posted on 11/14/2014 9:15:45 PM PST by Democrat_media (call Congress 202-224-3121 to stop Obama's executive order for Amnesty for illegals)
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To: SpaceBar

I agree this great article needs to be emailed to every Republican in Congress and to Rush, Levin ,Hannity, Ingraham etc.. the following has to be done immediately:

How to fight him? Begin with the lame-duck session of Congress. The GOP cannot allow Harry Reid to pass a continuing resolution that funds the government through the rest of the fiscal year, thereby depriving Republicans of the opportunity to address executive amnesty using its departmental budgets


16 posted on 11/14/2014 9:19:13 PM PST by Democrat_media (call Congress 202-224-3121 to stop Obama's executive order for Amnesty for illegals)
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To: SeekAndFind

obama is a dictator. Obama has destroyed our way of life, our freedom , our country and my life personally by allowing these illegal immigrants to take away my job. I hate Obama more than anything. he’s ruined my country and my life.

How to fight him? Begin with the lame-duck session of Congress. The GOP cannot allow Harry Reid to pass a continuing resolution that funds the government through the rest of the fiscal year, thereby depriving Republicans of the opportunity to address executive amnesty using its departmental budgets


17 posted on 11/14/2014 9:23:06 PM PST by Democrat_media (call Congress 202-224-3121 to stop Obama's executive order for Amnesty for illegals)
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To: SeekAndFind
Truthfully I don't believe that the Republican leadership wants to stop amnesty and I don't believe that they will.

The wisest thing to do is prepare for some very bad times.

18 posted on 11/15/2014 5:14:18 AM PST by Eagles6 (Valley Forge Redux. If not now, when? If not here, where? If not us then who?)
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