Appealing to our nation’s sense of compassion, President Obama issued an impassioned speech on Thursday in support of his plan to use executive action to shield millions of Americans from deportation proceedings. Obama told Americans that deporting millions is “not who we are” and stated later that, “Whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in.”
And predictably, Republican leaders are thrashing about and assailing the president for executive overreach, resorting to name-calling and threats. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a news release referring to him as “Emperor Obama,” while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) accused him of acting like a king and throwing a “temper tantrum.” Other Republican leaders are threatening to defund the program and have even floated the idea of impeachment.
Preempting the inevitable response by grandstanding Republicans, Obama offered an eloquent yet blunt response: “To those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill.”
Lawmakers, for the most part, have just sat there twiddling their thumbs, playing patty-cake for years as immigration authorities continued to split up families at record levels. Despite the heated rhetoric from Republicans in response to Obama’s announcement on Thursday, his immigration plan is absolutely necessary to remedy years of congressional inaction; furthermore, the programs he announced are rather limited in scope.
Obama’s executive actions will provide approximately four million parents of U.S. citizens in addition to legal residents (green card holders) with deferred action, provided that they pass a criminal background check and have remained in the U.S. for at least five years.
Although deferred action does not grant them legal status or a pathway to citizenship, it prevents them from facing deportation proceedings for three years— after which they must reapply again or face the possibility of being deported again.
It will also expand a previous program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). An additional 270,000 will now be eligible for deferred action if they entered America prior to the age of 16.
Despite the usual right-wing mantra that these immigrants will free-ride off the backs of taxpayers and live off welfare, the immigrants who stand to receive relief as a result of this program will not enjoy any of these benefits; those receiving deferred action will not be eligible for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, nor will they qualify for other federal programs such as food stamps.
And despite claims that this presidential unilateralism violates the separation of powers doctrine or the Constitution’s mandate that the president “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” Obama’s forthcoming actions are clearly not an unconstitutional exercise of his executive authority. The decision to not deport unauthorized immigrants clearly falls under his prosecutorial discretion (the ability to decide whether or not to prosecute someone for a crime).
For example, the Supreme Court in United States vs. Nixon declared that, “The Executive Branch has exclusive authority and absolute discretion to decide whether to prosecute a case.”
Despite claims otherwise, Obama isn’t “rewriting the laws.” Rather, he is simply deciding which types of immigrants should be deported—and the decision is as simple as this: should we focus on deporting people with children here, or should we focus on deporting criminals?
Obama’s initiative is legitimate: preventing Homeland Security from wasting its resources on breaking up innocent families clearly falls under the executive’s purview, especially when there are other immigrants guilty of committing crimes who deserve immediate removal.
The irony is that Republicans frequently emphasize “family values.” Does this not apply to immigration proceedings?
To all the writhing congressmen who are complaining about Obama’s immigration initiative, my answer is this: do something about it. A bipartisan immigration bill already passed in the Senate over a year ago; the House should immediately follow suit, stop grandstanding and pass the bill.
Although Obama’s plan offers respite for close to five million Americans in total, immigration policy must be hashed out in the legislative process, with both sides giving a little and getting a little. Only then will we have meaningful and long-lasting immigration reform.