{"id":2513,"date":"2011-08-19T09:33:59","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T15:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2513"},"modified":"2011-08-19T09:33:59","modified_gmt":"2011-08-19T15:33:59","slug":"illegal-immigrants-amnesty-an-imperial-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2513","title":{"rendered":"Illegal Immigrants, Amnesty & an Imperial President"},"content":{"rendered":"

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. (Article I, Section 1, U.S. Constitution)<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For someone who served as editor of the Harvard Law Review and who described himself as a “constitutional law professor,” <\/a>our nation’s current President, Barack H. Obama, seems to be woefully deficient in his understanding of the United States Constitution.\u00a0 By the time I was finished with 9th grade Civics, I knew that Congress (Legislative Branch)\u00a0made laws, the President (Executive Branch)\u00a0enforced the laws, and the Supreme Court (Judicial Branch) interpreted the laws.\u00a0 Of course, by the time I finished law school, I understood that the Judicial Branch also made laws, but that’s another post.<\/p>\n

By executive fiat, the President — harkening back to the days of the “Imperial Presidencies”<\/em> of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon — has, in effect, granted backdoor amnesty to hundreds of thousands\u00a0of immigrants who are in this country illegally.\u00a0 What President Obama and his liberal Democrat allies could not achieve by legal means — by Congress passing a law and the President signing it — they now have achieved by flouting the law.\u00a0 That should not surprise anyone at this point in the Obama presidency.\u00a0 He is, in so many ways, the embodiment of Richard Nixon.\u00a0 Like Nixon, President Obama has skirted the Constitution to get what he wants, regardless of the laws which are in place.\u00a0 Or, in the case of the Dream Act<\/em>, which are not in place.<\/p>\n

The signs of Obama’s “Imperial Presidency” have been with us from the beginning, but will only continue to worsen.\u00a0 Those who believe in the “Rule of Law” and a Constitutional Republic can only shudder at the prospect of an Obama second term.\u00a0 The Imperial Obama would continue to do what Imperial Presidents before him have done:<\/p>\n

\u201cImperial Presidency\u201d is the phrase used by some historians and political\u00a0 scientists to refer to the Presidencies of Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon<\/a>. The notion that the\u00a0President is above the law<\/a> and\u00a0 that what he orders is the law, despite conflicting provisions of the\u00a0Constitution or laws passed by Congress, is the fundamental tenet of the\u00a0 imperial Presidency. (full article here<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The President, by “ordering” the Department of Homeland Security and\u00a0Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)\u00a0to halt deportations of illegal immigrants,\u00a0has de facto<\/em> implemented the provisions of the Dream Act<\/em>, which has thus far failed to become law.\u00a0 Of course, this President views himself above the law, above the people, and above it all.\u00a0 In a June 17 department memo, there are 19 factors which must now be used in the 300,000 or so deportation cases:<\/p>\n

The memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u00a0 Director John Morton instructed staff to consider 19 factors when exercising\u00a0 “prosecutorial discretion” — or the discretion an ICE attorney has in deciding\u00a0 whether and how to pursue an immigration case. The list includes factors similar\u00a0 to those in the DREAM Act, like whether someone arrived in the U.S. as a “young\u00a0 child,” is pursuing an education or has served in the military.<\/strong>( emphasis added; full article here<\/a>)<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what the President and his liberal\u00a0allies in Congress cannot get passed through the legislative process\u00a0will instead become law through Executive Fiat.\u00a0 The disregard for the rule of law and\u00a0Constitutional process should amaze everyone, but this is what we have come to expect from this Administration and his leftist enablers in Congress:<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s announcement shows that this president is willing to put muscle behind his words and to use his power to intervene when the lives of good people are being ruined by bad laws,\u201d said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez<\/a>, Illinois Democrat, who has taken a leadership role on the issue since the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy<\/a> in 2009.(full article here<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Talk about irony.\u00a0 That Rep. Gutierrez has taken the mantle of Edward Kennedy,\u00a0who\u00a0in his\u00a0lifetime was a prime example of someone who thought himself above the law.\u00a0 What a rich tradition that the “Gentleman from Illinois” is carrying on.\u00a0 I’m sure Ted Kennedy would be proud.<\/p>\n

People everyday are ruined by bad laws.\u00a0 Millions of innocent babies are aborted every year because of bad laws.\u00a0 Of course, President Obama and Rep. Gutierrez would fight tooth and nail to defend the bad laws which protect abortion on demand.\u00a0 The President has even fought to preserve bad laws which allow for the murder of innocent babies right up until the time they are born, if even the babies are full-term and viable.\u00a0 So, the reliance on the “good people, bad laws” defense is pathetic.<\/p>\n

It would be far easier to give the President a pass on his actions if it were not for the craven political interests involved.\u00a0 Most observers view the\u00a0President’s actions\u00a0as political\u00a0payment\u00a0to left-wing Hispanic groups\u00a0who have agitated over the last two years for “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” (read, “Amnesty”).\u00a0\u00a0But, those who support the Dream Act and other “legal pathways to citizenship” are not confined to La Raza and other groups aligned with the\u00a0Democrat\u00a0Party.<\/p>\n

In fact, the nation’s largest Protestant body — the Southern Baptist Convention — is on record as supporting\u00a0Immigration Reform.\u00a0 This past June,\u00a0some 3,000 messengers, representing 16 million Southern Baptists, passed a resolution\u00a0that many have interpreted as a call for amnesty<\/a>.\u00a0 Richard Land, the President of the\u00a0Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC)\u00a0of the SBC, is even on record stating that “his” agency would support a “clean” version of the Dream Act<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I wonder if Dr. Land considers\u00a0the actions of\u00a0President Obama, the Department of Homeland Security, and ICE as\u00a0“clean” or “unclean?”\u00a0 As one Southern Baptist who Dr. Land does not speak for, I can tell you that this President’s actions, if not reversed, will only lead to more “lawless” actions.\u00a0 While the Obama Administration may not have technically violated any laws, they have certainly damaged the Constitution and violated the rule of law.\u00a0\u00a0LBJ and Richard Nixon would\u00a0be proud.\u00a0 And, that’s not a compliment.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. (Article I, Section 1, U.S. Constitution) For someone who served as editor of the Harvard Law Review and who described himself as a “constitutional law professor,” our nation’s current President,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,30,34],"tags":[3365,1067,1261,1269,1081,1265,302,303,1271,1262,1268,1274,1273,509,1272,1258,1266,1260,1267,1259,800,1159,1263,840,1264,3393,1270,1014],"class_list":["post-2513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-immigration-reform","category-law","category-politics","tag-abortion","tag-amnesty","tag-backdoor-amnesty","tag-civics","tag-comprehensive-immigration-reform","tag-congress","tag-democrat-party","tag-democrats","tag-department-of-homeland-security","tag-dream-act","tag-executive-branch","tag-executive-fiat","tag-ice","tag-illegal-immigration","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-imperial-presidency","tag-judicial-branch","tag-la-raza","tag-legislative-branch","tag-lyndon-johnson","tag-president-barack-obama","tag-pro-amnesty","tag-rep-luis-gutierrez","tag-richard-nixon","tag-rule-of-law","tag-southern-baptist-convention","tag-ted-kennedy","tag-u-s-constitution"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-Ex","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2513"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2525,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2513\/revisions\/2525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}