Last December, a bill to let illegal aliens stay in the U.S. if they were enrolled in school, serving in the military, or etc., was voted down by the Senate.
Last Friday, the Obama administration decided it was OK to enact it anyway, and issued orders that Immigration officers should no longer deport illegal aliens who were enrolled or enlisted.
Am I the only one who finds this act by Obama, astounding? I've seen no mention of it in any mainstream news service or publication. I had to dig pretty hard to find it on the Internet, and didn't try to post anything about it until I found it in a fairly reputable source.
Frankly, when I first heard about it, I thought it must be a joke, maybe an article found in The Onion... though it isn't particularly funny, unlike their usual publications. Now I'm just standing here with my mouth open.
Somebody help me out here. Isn't the Presiden't job "to take care that the laws of the United States be faithfully executed." ? Isn't that his WHOLE job?
Did I miss the part where it turned into "to decide which laws of the United States shall be executed and which shall not be" ?
My cartoon-watching kids would call this "morphing". But that's because they watch cartoons.
What on Earth has Barack Obama been watching, that gave him the idea he can tell the Border Patrol NOT to enforce immigration law???
Defunding them is one thing (as many Presidents have done). Failing to send officers to do the job is another (which those same Presidents have done).
But ACTIVELY TELLING THEM TO NOT BUST ILLEGALS because they have enrolled in school or whatever???
Please, somebody wake me up and tell me I'm just having a bad dream here.
Please?
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20110620/pl_dailycaller/whitehouseloosensborderrulesfor2012_1
White House loosens border rules for 2012
Mon Jun 20, 6:28 pm ET
President Barack Obama’s administration is quietly offering a quasi-amnesty for hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, aiming to win reelection by mobilizing a wave of new Hispanic voters without alienating the populous at large, say supporters of stronger immigration law enforcement.
The new rules were quietly announced Friday with a new memo from top officials at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. The “prosecutorial discretion” memo says officials need not enforce immigration laws if illegal immigrants are enrolled in an education center or if their relatives have volunteered for the US military.
“They’re pushing the [immigration] agents to be even more lax, to go further in not enforcing the law,” said Kris Kobach, Kansas’ secretary of state. “At a time when millions of Americans are unemployed and looking for work, this is more bad news coming from the Obama administration… [if the administration] really cared about putting Americans back to work, it would be vigorously enforcing the law,” he said.
“We think it is an excellent step,” said Laura Vasquez, at the Hispanic-advocacy group, La Raza, which pushed for the policies, and which is working with other groups to register Hispanics to vote in 2012. “What’s very important is how the prosecutorial discretion memo is implemented” on the streets, she said.
The Hispanic vote could be crucial in the 2012 election, because the Obama campaign hopes to offset its declining poll ratings by registering new Hispanic voters in crucial swing states, such as Virginia and North Carolina.
To boost the Hispanic vote, the administration has enlisted support from Hispanic media figures, appointed an experienced Hispanic political operative to run the political side of the Obama reelection campaign, and has maintained close ties to Hispanic advocacy groups, including La Raza. For example, La Raza’s former senior vice president and lobbyist, Cecilia Munoz, was hired by the Obama administration as director of intergovernmental affairs in 2009.
On Friday, officials at ICE announced several new administrative changes to immigration enforcement.
The primary document was the six-page “prosecutorial discretion” memo, which provided new reasons for officials to not deport illegal immigrants.
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)
