Posted on 04/06/2016 2:33:08 PM PDT by Kaslin
Does the president of the United States have the power to unilaterally tell millions of individuals who are violating federal law that he will not enforce that law against them now, that they may continue to violate that law in the future and that he will take action that makes them eligible for federal benefit programs for which they are not currently eligible due to their unlawful status?
Through Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, President Barack Obama is telling the Supreme Court exactly this right now.
The solicitor general calls what Obama is doing "prosecutorial discretion."
He argues that under this particular type of "prosecutorial discretion," the executive can make millions of people in this country illegally eligible for Social Security, disability and Medicare.
On April 18, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case. Entitled United States v. Texas, it pits President Obama against not only the Lone Star State, but also a majority of the states, which have joined in the litigation against the administration.
At issue is the policy the administration calls Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents, which would allow aliens in this country illegally who are parents of citizens or lawful permanent residents to stay in the United States.
"The Executive Branch unilaterally created a program -- known as DAPA -- that contravenes Congress's complex statutory framework for determining when an alien may lawfully enter, remain in, and work in the country," the attorney general and solicitor general of Texas explained in a brief submitted to the Supreme Court on behalf of the states seeking to block the policy.
"DAPA would deem over four million unlawfully present aliens as 'lawfully present' and eligible for work authorization," says the Texas brief. "And 'lawful presence' is an immigration classification established by Congress that is necessary for valuable benefits, such as Medicare and Social Security."
In the administration's brief, the solicitor general admits that the president's DAPA program does not convert people illegally in the United States into legal immigrants. He further asserts that the administration at any time can decide to go ahead and remove these aliens from the country.
"Deferred action does not confer lawful immigration status or provide any defense to removal," he says. "An alien with deferred action remains removable at any time and DHS has absolute discretion to revoke deferred action unilaterally, without notice or process."
Despite this, he argues, the administration can authorize aliens here illegally on "deferred action" to legally work in the United States.
"Without the ability to work lawfully, individuals with deferred action would have no way to lawfully make ends meet while present here," says the administration's brief.
Nonetheless, the solicitor general stresses that "deferred action" does not make an illegal immigrant eligible for federal welfare.
"In general," he says, "only 'qualified' aliens are eligible to participate in federal public benefit programs, and deferred action does not make an alien 'qualified.'... Aliens with deferred action thus cannot receive food stamps, Supplemental Security Income, temporary aid for needy families, and many other federal benefits."
But, he says, aliens here illegally with deferred action will be eligible for "earned-benefit programs."
"A non-qualified alien is not categorically barred, however, from participating in certain federal earned-benefit programs associated with lawfully working in the United States -- the Social Security retirement and disability, Medicare, and railroad-worker programs -- so long as the alien is 'lawfully present in the United States as determined by the (Secretary),'" says the solicitor general.
The "secretary" here is the secretary of Homeland Security.
"An alien with deferred action is considered 'lawfully present' for these purposes," says the solicitor general.
So, as explained to the Supreme Court by Obama's solicitor general, when DHS grants an alien here illegally "deferred action" under the president's DAPA policy, that alien is not given "lawful immigration status" and can be removed from the country "at any time." However, according to the solicitor general, that alien will be authorized to work in the United States and will be "considered 'lawfully present'" for purposes of being eligible for "the Social Security retirement and disability, Medicare, and railroad-worker programs."
The U.S. Constitution imposes this straightforward mandate on the president: "(H)e shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed."
When the Supreme Court agreed in January to hear U.S. v. Texas, it made a telling request. It asked the parties to argue whether Obama's DAPA policy "violates the Take Care Clause of the Constitution."
The Obama administration has taken care of just one thing here: It has constructed a convoluted -- and unconvincing argument -- it hopes will provide the activists on the Supreme Court with a cover story to explain why this president need not faithfully execute the nation's immigration laws.
The ****** is basically giving illegals defacto citizenship. I expect before he is through he will grant them the right to vote. All the benefits with none of the responsibility. This will draw many millions more illegals to the US. Has anyone in the media asked the xxxxxx WHY he is doing this?
I don’t think Congress would do it without strong coercion...That would have to come from the people...
But even that, I’m not sure that the present day American people are strong enough to do it...
“Co-mingling discretion.”
“RICO discretion.”
and those in DC keep pretending they can’t understand why the American people or so pissed off at them!!
You could point to numerous examples of the BS that this administration is doing daily and look for the opposition to scream at the injustice and their is none. You must finally understand that we are fighting tyrants, who are one against the people. While the left hand is making funny hand gestures the other one is back handing the them.
Most still think that we are in a fight for sides when we are really in a fight for our very survival as a country and a way of life.
We were put in this position for a few pieces of gold and a little power. This has been going on for many years and I am afraid this will come to an end, in my life time.
So much going wrong with this country and no one is going after the reasons or showing who is doing it. They are just keeping the people entertained for a little while longer while the world implodes. The question that needs to be asked is simple, Why? Ask one of the talking heads, a politician or anyone, why are you doing this to your country? You know what is happening to bakers? Veterans? God loving Americans? Why are they allowing Americans to be treated like this?
Same party, Different letter.
That would have to come from the people...
************
I believe you made a typo. You must have meant ‘sheeple’. ;)
More and more, it does seem that way, doesn’t it???
I think once we take the white house we can encourage states to shut down abortion clinics and instruct the AG to ignore any requests to prosecute. Maybe this can work for us?
I remember the rule of law. I’ll have to tell me grandchildren what that was like.
0bama is accomplishing his “fundamental transformation” by transferring wealth from the makers to the takers and the voting blocks from “white” to “brown” with no attachment or assimilation into the American culture of hard work, individual motivation, and entrepreneurial endeavors.
Off topic, but I wonder if America will continue to produce a warrior class in twenty years?
5.56mm
Thank you, Paul Ryan.
later
Bound and determined to destroy the US economically.
He really want to kill off Social Security. What a dirty rat.
ealgeone wrote, “Years ago this would rise to the level of impeachment.”
It rises to the same level, even today. Sadly, now we don’t have elected officials with the moral or ethical fiber to take on the fight.
We are witnessing the death of this grand experiment, I fear.
Time to water Jefferson’s tree, perhaps...
Last-term Obama is corrupt Congress’s “useful idiot” imo.
To begin with, what low-information Obama unsurprisingly doesn’t understand about Social Security is this. Regardless what post-17th Amendment ratification, state sovereignty-ignoring Supreme Court activist justices wanted everybody to believe about the constitutionally of FDR’s Social Security program in Helvering v. Davis, Social Security is unconstitutional imo.
More specifically, regardless that the 74th Congress justified Social Security with the Constitution’s General Welfare Clause (GWC; 1.8.1), President James Madison had written that the General Welfare Clause is not a a specific delegation of power, but an introductory clause for most the remaining clauses in Section 8 which are specific delegations of power.
In fact, Madison had explained the purpose of the GWC in the constitutionally required veto explanation to the House of Representatives which had based an appropriations bill for roads and canals on the GWC.
”To refer the power in question to the clause "to provide for common defense and general welfare" would be contrary to the established and consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the special and careful enumeration of powers which follow the clause nugatory and improper. Such a view of the Constitution would have the effect of giving to Congress a general power of legislation instead of the defined and limited one hitherto understood to belong to them, the terms "common defense and general welfare" embracing every object and act within the purview of a legislative trust.” —Veto of federal public works bill, 1817
Also, forget the corrupt media’s lie that the POTUS can do anything independently of Congress. The only constitutional authority that a POTUS has with respect to exercising legislative powers is to either sign or veto bills that Congress puts on the president’s desk.
Otherwise, since Congress has the constitutional authority to not only override presidential vetoes, but also to impeach and remove lawless presidents from office, corrupt Congress has actually been letting Obama steal federal and state legislative powers so that Obama can do Congress’s dirty legislative work for Congress.
In other words, by letting Obama do its dirty work for them, making illegal immigrants eligible for unconstitutional Social Security in this example, corrupt lawmakers are able to keep their voting records clean. And by keeping their voting records clean, lawmakers are able to fool low-information patriots into reelecting them.
Again, Obama is corrupt Congress’s “useful idiot” imo.
Remember in November !
If patriots elect Trump, Cruz, or whatever conservative they elect, they will also need to elect a new, state sovereignty-respecting Congress that will work within its constitutional Article I, Section 8-limited powers to not only support the president, but also stop lawless presidents and state-sovereignty ignoring activist justices from stealing legislative powers.
In fact, note that such a Congress will also probably be willing to fire state sovereignty-ignoring activist justices.
If this ain't a wake up call to them, nothing will be.
What can you do? This especially posses me off, as I have severe problems with my hands and neck, yet I can’t get disability because of my education and experience, according to them. So, in other words, getting an education and working to the top and paying a lot into the system is reason to deny you benefits, even if you can’t sit or use your hands anymore.
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