Sen. Grassley Open to Legal Challenge to Obama's Executive Amnesty
Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), told The Hill on Thursday that he's open to taking legal action against the Obama Administration over its massive use of prosecutorial discretion to offer amnesty to at least 1.4 million illegal aliens. Sen. Grassley told The Hill he's still exploring options, but he hasn't ruled out legal action.
"It’s more probably legal action, because we know what the law is and you know when there’s this sort of discretion in the law, it’s based upon a case-by-case basis not doing 10,000 or 100,000 people all at once," Grassley told The Hill.
Sen. Grassley admitted that he hasn't discussed legal options with other Members of Congress, but he's also not saying that those talks won't happen.
Yesterday, Sen. Grassley, along with Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), held a press conference on Capitol Hill where representatives from the Border Patrol and ICE agents unions criticized Pres. Obama's executive amnesty policy. The policy would offer illegal aliens who have been in the country for the last 5 years, are under the age of 31, have a high school diploma or equivalent, and can prove they were brought to the U.S. at a young age to apply for deferred action from deportation and apply for a work permit. DHS Sec. Janet Napolitano appeared before the House Judiciary Committee last week, however, and offered little reassurance that the agencies would strictly enforce the basic requirements.
The policy is slated to be implemented on August 15, leaving little time for Congress to act through the legislative process. Not to mention, any legislation that could get through both Chambers would most likely face a veto from Pres. Obama.
"As of now, we’re not exploring any legislative action, because we don’t have time this year," Sen. Grassley said. "And we wouldn’t do it anyway until we’d given a reasonable amount of time [for a response]."
For more information, see The Hill.