Throughout the week, NumbersUSA has been running full-page ads in several political journals, including Politico, Roll Call, The Hill and National Journal. Each day, an ad highlighted different aspects of President Obama's executive amnesty. They ranged from polling data to the unconstitutionality of his plan to his ever-changing stance on allowing millions of illegal aliens stay and work in the United States.
The topic of President Obama's executive amnesty was hotly discussed at the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association (RGA) this week in Florida. Several Republican chief state executives gave their thoughts on the upcoming announcement and how best to deal with the situation.
As President Obama's announcement of executive action on immigration grows nearer, details about his plan are starting to emerge. The plan will grant amnesty and work permits to an estimated 5 million illegal aliens and provide more work visas for foreign tech workers.
The Daily Caller -- Neil Munro
President Barack Obama’s unilateral amnesty will quickly add as many foreign workers to the nation’s legal labor force as the total number of new jobs created by his economy since 2009.
The plans, expected to be announced late Nov. 20, will distribute five million work permits to illegal immigrants, and also create a new inflow of foreign college graduates for prestigious salaried jobs, according to press reports.
Time Magazine -- Alex Rogers
Some conservatives have advocated for a short-term alternative that would push the spending battle into early next year when Republicans control both chambers of Congress. AlabamaRepublican Sen. Jeff Sessions, the incoming Budget Committee chairman, has pushed that strategy along with other conservatives and outside groups.
Breitbart News -- Matthew Boyle
A defense contractor and top campaign contributor to House Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) is in the running to get a contract to print millions of IDs and other government documents associated with the president’s planned executive amnesty, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
According to the Washington Post, President Obama will announce on Thursday his plans to grant executive amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. The plan would reportedly expand his 2012 directive, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that granted amnesty and work permits to illegal aliens meeting certain criteria, and extend similar benefits to illegal-alien parents of children who are U.S. citizens or green card holders.
Politico -- Carrie Buddoff Brown and Seung Min Kim
President Barack Obama will announce Thursday that he is shielding about 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation, circumventing Congress to provide the most sweeping changes to immigration policy in decades.
Obama released a video Wednesday previewing his primetime speech and his Friday trip to Las Vegas.
The Daily Caller -- Neil Munro
President Obama once declared that an influx of illegal immigrants will harm “the wages of blue-collar Americans” and “put strains on an already overburdened safety net.”
Breitbart -- Matthew Boyle
Rosemary Jenks of NumbersUSA said it’s time for Boehner to stand up to Obama instead of running to the courts for cover.
This week, Breitbart News published op-eds penned by Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Steve King (R-Iowa) in which they discuss President Obama's executive amnesty and what to do about it.
The immigration issue and Pres. Obama's threats to act alone on immigration contributed to his party suffering massive losses in the 2014 mid-term elections. Three-quarters of those who voted this year (74%) say President Obama should work with Congress rather than around Congress on immigration and separately, 80% want new jobs created by the economy to go to American workers and legal immigrants already in the country.
The Wall Street Journal reports Administration insiders as saying the president’s executive amnesty may use two main criteria in deciding whether illegal aliens get additional protection from deportation - a minimum period of residence in the U.S. and family ties to others in the country. The vast majority of illegal aliens are already safe from deportations due to the Administration’s non-enforcement policies.
The former head of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano indicated today that she would support President Obama's executive actions on immigration if comprehensive immigration reform cannot be passed by Congress. She told the Washington Post, “If Congress refuses to act and perform its duties, then I think it’s appropriate for the executive to step in and use his authorities based on law . . . to take action in the immigration arena.’’
National Review -- A.J. Delgado
A judge in Oregon has dismissed the deportation case against Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros, a 19-year-old illegal immigrant who killed two young girls in a hit-and-run car accident last year. Though Garcia-Cisneros was in the midst of removal proceedings, she is now released and will not face deportation. Garcia-Cisneros, who came from Mexico as a child, had permission to be in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program instituted by President Obama in 2012.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., took to the Senate floor to blast President Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty planned for later this year and the Senate Democrats who refuse to oppose it. In the speech excerpts below, Sen. Sessions says the president and Senate Democrats are surrendering the jobs, wages, and livelihoods of American workers to powerful special interests that want to amnesty illegal aliens and increase the number of foreign guest workers.
A poll from The Polling Company shows overwhelming support among likely voters for significantly lower immigration levels, increased enforcement and an opposition to Pres. Obama's plan to move forward with an executive action that could grant amnesty and work permits to millions of illegal aliens. 74% of likely voters chose Pres. Obama working with Congress on the immigration issue rather than acting alone, and 75% of likely voters want to see more enforcement of immigration laws.
Several Republican Senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have joined Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) in his push for a Senate vote on a House measure that would defund Pres. Obama's executive amnesties. The bill, introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and passed by the House on their final day of session before leaving for the August recess, would defund any efforts made by the administration to renew applications under Pres. Obama's DACA program and defund any future work permits.
Breitbart.com -- By John Sexton
President Obama's executive actions on immigration did not begin with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in mid-2012. It began in 2011 with his announcement of "prosecutorial discretion" on deportations. A few months later the border patrol noted the first uptick in unaccompanied children at the border.
The number of Unaccompanied Alien Children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2014 more than doubled from the 2013, but instead of sending the children back home, the Obama Administration has relocated tens of thousands of children to communities across the country. Here's a state-by-state breakdown of where they're being sent.
Relocations from January 1, 2014 to July 7, 2014.
Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told his Republican Caucus he will soon announce whether the House will sue President Barack Obama to challenge the potentially unconstitutional actions his administration has taken, according to a report in Roll Call. Boehner did not say which executive actions will be challenged but the lawsuit could zero in on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
65% of Americans disapprove of Pres. Obama's handling of immigration, according to a June 2014 Gallup poll. It's one of the highest disapproval ratings since Gallup starting taking the pulse of Americans on the issue in 2010. There is a wide gap between the opinions of Republicans and Democrats with only 8% of Republicans approving and 65% of Democrats. Independents are more closely aligned with Republicans with only 25% supporting his handling of the issue.
Late afternoon on Saturday, June 7, 2014, a message resonated loudly at the Republican Party of Texas 2014 Convention, a message to all Texas elected officials and to the “Inside the Beltway” DC political elite: Place Americans first. Secure our borders. Uphold current U.S. laws. Read about the defeat of the anti-American worker "Texas Solution."
In an effort to jumpstart House action, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., today again proposed to pass an amnesty bill with a 2017 effective date to mollify Republican concerns that Obama will not carry out the legislation’s enforcement provisions. A spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, dismissed the offer saying that President Obama would then have no incentive to enforce immigration law for the rest of his term.
In a recent PBS interview, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said he is “taking a fresh look at the Secure Communities program,” which has been subject to withering opposition by illegal-alien advocacy groups. The hand-picked law enforcement officials who met with Johnson last week also want the program re-evaluated but others do not want to diminish its effectiveness.
In a letter to President Obama, 22 Republican senators said the deportation policy changes under consideration by DHS would represent “a near complete abandonment of basic immigration enforcement and discard the rule of law and the notion the United States has enforceable borders.” The letter warns Obama to improve immigration enforcement, not look for ways to weaken it.
Pres. Obama called House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Wednesday shortly after issuing a public statement that included harsh criticism for House Republicans who he says are blocking the Senate's comprehensive amnesty bill. After the call, and in light of a tough primary challenge, Cantor took a hardline position against the Senate bill and said the President has no desire to work with House Republicans on a solution to the issue.
House Democrats are urging 30 Republicans who've said they support some form of amnesty to sign a discharge petition and force a floor vote on H.R. 15, their comprehensive amnesty bill. "We're calling out the members of the House…who have said they support immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship," said Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo. "We're saying, 'Do something about your support…(P)ut their pen where their mouth is."
The Denver public school is on track to hire as teachers illegal aliens who received a two-year stay of deportation and a work permit under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Critics say the move is unfair to unemployed citizens who are qualified educators.
Illegal-alien advocates staged protests in several dozen cities on April 5 to demand a freeze on deportations and the passage of so-called comprehensive immigration reform this year. Immigration-enforcement supporters turned out as well in a number of places.
Republicans voted down a Democratic amendment to the fiscal year 2015 budget bill that would have included funds for so-called comprehensive immigration reform. Media are portraying the gambit as the first major immigration fight of the year but Democrats offered the amendment knowing it wouldn’t pass. The political ploy was meant to put Republicans on the record as voting against the preferred Democratic method of immigration reform.
During an online video chat on Wednesday, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Cecilia Munoz said that the Obama Administration will renew deferred action for illegal aliens who arrived in the United States as children when they expire after the initial two year period. President's Obama's executive amnesty program for young illegal aliens has given work permits and legal status to 567,563 illegal aliens between the ages of 15 and 31.
The Federal District Court in Dallas concluded that the 10 ICE agents who claimed that the executive DACA amnesty violated federal law "were likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Department of Homeland Security has implemented a program contrary to congressional mandate. However, the Court finds that Congress has precluded Plaintiffs from pursuing their claims in this Court by enacting the CSRA.”
By giving certain illegal aliens executive amnesty, the Obama Administration forced states to decide whether such persons would be eligible for state benefits such as driver’s licenses and taxpayer-subsidized in-state tuition. Some states have made their decisions but more debate, especially in state legislatures, is expected in 2013.
The Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is suing Secretary of State Ruth Johnson on behalf of executive amnesty recipients who have been denied driver's licenses under her interpretation of state law.
Last month, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) sent a letter to the Social Security Administration requesting details on how the agency would manage the issuance of Social Security numbers to illegal aliens who receive deferred action and a work permit through the Obama Administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Rep. Gingrey asked for a response by November 30, 2012, but has yet to receive one.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued guidance under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that indicates illegal aliens can obtain a form of ID fraud amnesty in addition to deportation amnesty. A DACA applicant who has used a fraudulent or stolen Social Security Number to obtain employment does not have to reveal the felonious act on his/her work authorization form.
