Obama's Unlawful Amnesty: More Executive Policymaking Imminent

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Dec 15, 2014, 07:30 ET

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies concludes that Congress and the public still do not know the full extent of President Obama's lawless amnesty scheme. Obama's Department of Homeland Security issued 10 memos providing a general outline, but the executive branch will be issuing further policies, guidelines, and plans which could make the executive action even broader and more vulnerable to fraud.

"These memos are a reminder that one can't think of Obama's lawless amnesty scheme as settled law," stated Jon Feere, the Center's Legal Policy Analyst and author of the analysis.

"Not only are these plans currently a work-in-progress, any provision can change on a whim or be expanded in the future with nothing more than Obama's pen."

View the entire report at: http://cis.org/much-of-obamas-lawless-immigration-scheme-still-unknown

All of the memos include yet-to-be determined elements. The Obama administration will be defining terms, like "extreme hardship" in regard to waivers for spouses or parents of U.S. citizens or LPRs and establishing a new, as-yet undefined program to replace the successful Secure Communities program that Obama has decided to cancel.

These policy changes and rulemaking efforts should go through a notice and comment process as required by the Administrative Procedures Act. Such a requirement helps limit executive abuse of power and keeps the government answerable to the people. But the Obama administration has already shown its lack of regard for federal law by how it handled public comment regarding the Deferred Action program. The Obama administration did not solicit comments until the day after applications began to be accepted.

The American public will not know how Obama's new immigration scheme will operate or how many illegal immigrants it will include until it is already up and running. Congress could take some control over this lawless policymaking by better defining the areas of law the administration claims are unclear and open to interpretation. Doing so might limit the Obama administration's effort to further expand its authority over immigration policy.

The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985. It is the nation's only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States

Contact: Marguerite Telford
202-455-8185, [email protected]

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SOURCE Center for Immigration Studies