The Obama administration has been holding behind-the-scenes talks to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security can unilaterally grant legal status on a mass basis to illegal immigrants..
The issue was raised publicly by eight Republican senators who wrote to the White House on Monday to complain that they had heard the administration was readying a "Plan B" in case a comprehensive immigration reform bill cannot win enough support to clear Congress.
The White House would not confirm or deny the claim. "The administration at the very minimum is studying legal ways to legalize people without having to go through any congressional debate about it," sources said, calling the senators' claim credible. "Whether somebody pulls the trigger on that, that's another issue."
The senators -- Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; David Vitter, R-La.; Jim Bunning, R-Ky.; Saxby Chambliss, Ga.; Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.; James Inhofe, R-Okla.; and Thad Cochran, R-Miss. -- claimed in their letter that the administration was looking at extending what is known as deferred action or parole to millions of illegal aliens in the United States.
A former official said …either deferred action or parole to legalize at once the millions of immigrants who have overstayed their visas -- not necessarily those who crossed the border illegally Deferred action and parole would give illegal immigrants the ability to seek a work permit and temporary legal status, with fast track to citizenship.
. The Department of Homeland Security estimated last year that 10.8 million undocumented residents live in the United States -- the Pew Hispanic Center, which has a similar count, estimated in 2006 that at least 4 million of them overstayed their visas.
Those two tools are usually used on a case-by-case basis. The former official said any move to broaden that authority and use it on a mass basis would be "woefully inappropriate," though politically brilliant.
The Republican senators who wrote to President Obama expressed a similar view. They wrote that any unilateral action would "further erode the American public's confidence in the federal government and its commitment to securing the borders and enforcing the laws already on the books."
This is definitely the style of the current administration. When the proper channel is blocked, take control through other means. There was a nice little chart of it all, it can be seen on Glenn Beck's website here: http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/37991/
ReplyDeleteWith the creation of all these agencies, there is a lot of power being taken from the legislature and handed to the executive branch. I don't know if they are really thinking this through, because at some point these people are not going to be in power any more, and they might not like the ones who take over.