UNIONS, GOP SENATORS RAISE ALARM ON OBAMA’S AMNESTY POWER-GRAB

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ICE ‘Secure Communities Program’, Illegals, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, unqualified illegals

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-ALA)

By: James R. Edwards, Jr.
8/5/2012 09:33 AM

The Obama administration’s de facto amnesty for younger illegal aliens has major Homeland Security unions and key lawmakers up in arms over the policy’s dangerous effects and lawless basis.

The heads of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ and Border Patrolmen’s unions joined Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and David Vitter (R-La.) at a recent press conference in Washington. The labor leaders exposed the end-run legalization scheme that Obama higher-ups are implementing.

U.S. agents are under orders to take the word of all illegal aliens who claim they qualify for this amnesty, union leaders said. Word from the field has it that “significant numbers” of unqualified illegals are exploiting the Obama policy.

“Officers have been told that there is no burden for the alien to prove anything,” the head of the ICE union, Chris Crane, said. Any agents who buck the Obama amnesty directive stand “under threat of losing their jobs.”

Crane, a veteran ICE special agent, serves as president of the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council, which has more than 7,000 members. George McCubbin is president of the National Border Patrol Council, with more than 17,000 members.

Exploiting loopholes

Two years ago, Obama political appointees at Homeland Security scoped out loopholes they could exploit in a notorious memorandum that got leaked. They considered provisions in law intended only for rare exceptions. Officials would apply the narrow exceptions wholesale to entire groups of illegal aliens.

ICE head John Morton, another Obama flunky, had already been disassembling effective immigration enforcement tools. He issued an order a year ago. The infamous Morton memo uses the ruse of “prosecutorial discretion”—a concept intended for case-by-case application—to achieve wide-reaching amnesty results.

The ICE Council unanimously took a vote of no confidence in its members’ agency leadership, naming Morton and assistant director Phyllis Coven. The union stated, “ICE is misleading the American public with regard to the effectiveness of criminal enforcement programs like the ICE ‘Secure Communities Program’ using it as a selling point to move forward with amnesty related legislation.”

Morton memo abuses authority

The most recent Obama abuse of immigration authority relies on the Morton memo. The ICE directive to field officers forces them to give a free pass to every illegal alien claiming to be in high school or going for a GED. > > > READ MORE

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Shocker of the Week: Illegal Immigrants Exploit Obama Amnesty Program to Stay in U.S.

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border security, Executive Order bypassing Congress, Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Napolitano, National Border Patrol Council

The press conference comes just days after the Federation for American Immigration Reform, an anti-illegal immigration group, released a report claiming the administration has worked for the past three-and-a-half years to undermine immigration enforcement.

via The Foundry

President Obama’s unilateral decision to implement parts of the failed DREAM Act legislation has allowed “dreamers” to game the system and stay in the U.S. illegally, according to two union leaders representing immigration agents.

Chris Crane, who represents Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, explained at a press conference:

Prosecutorial discretion for dreamers is solely based on the individual’s claims. Our orders are if an alien says they went to high school, then let them go.… Officers have been told that there is no burden for the alien to prove anything.… At this point we don’t even know why [the Department of Homeland Security] has criteria at all, as there is no requirement or burden to prove anything on the part of the alien.

We believe that significant numbers of people who are not dreamers are taking advantage of this practice to avoid arrest.

George McCubbin, president of the National Border Patrol Council union, added that the Department of Homeland Security has made it impossible for agents to do their jobs, with Crane stating that it’s led to disorganization and “confusion” at ICE.

Obama via executive branch fiat has granted effective amnesty to any illegal immigrant who claims that he or she came to America as a child. With no way to verify such a claim, America’s immigration enforcement officers are left powerless to enforce the actual immigration laws passed by Congress and signed by a President.

Beyond the practical problems, as Heritage previously stated about the Obama Administration’s imperial immigration policy:

The fundamental problem is that the Administration is trying to implement laws that Congress hasn’t passed. The President himself has admitted that he doesn’t have the constitutional authority to implement the DREAM Act: “The idea of doing things on my own is very tempting, I promise you, not just on immigration reform. But that’s not how our system works.”

One of the reasons our Founding Fathers separated the powers among the three branches of government is to ensure that laws have the majority support of the people’s representatives, who take due consideration of all the competing interests. By circumventing the legislative branch and its deliberative processes, President Obama made a decision that subverts the rule of law and makes enforcement a road riddled with pot holes.

NOTE: What is the point of having Laws, if money or power or Executive Order can supersede the LAW? What is the point of establishing borders if they will not be respected and maintained particularly by the arm of the government established for the sole purpose of “Homeland Security?” The pathetic thing about this administration and those who support it is their nullification of the historical greatness of the American people. We can handle anything, if only we know the TRUTH, but this administration doesn’t think we can handle the truth. Neither does he think we are able to take care of ourselves AND the poor and needy among us. He is very wrong … on both counts!

BTW … there is still nothing preventing the “RICH” from “donating” MORE of their income than the IRS requires of them if they choose … and that’s true for any of us. I’ll stick to “charity” in my own way, thanks!