Obama Administration Implements DREAM Act Through Executive Fiat
The DREAM Act is a controversial bit of legislation that would extend defacto amnesty to illegal immigrants who are doing things like attending college or serving in the military. Not surprisingly, because it’s so controversial, it’s never been passed through Congress.
So now the Obama administration is going to implement the law anyway by way of the Department of Homeland Security which will halt deportations for illegals who meet the criteria laid out in the law.
The move, announced in letters to Congress, won immediate praise from Hispanic activists and Democrats who had chided President Obama for months for the pace of deportations and had argued he had authority to exempt broad swaths of illegal immigrants from deportation.
“Today’s 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,” said Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat.
In the letters to Congress, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said her department and the Justice Department will review all ongoing cases and see who meets the new criteria on a case-by-case basis.
“This case-by-case approach will enhance public safety,” she said. “Immigration judges will be able to more swiftly adjudicate high priority cases, such as those involving convicted felons.”
The new rules apply to those who have been apprehended and are in deportation proceedings, but have not been officially ordered out of the country by a judge.
However you may feel about illegal immigration issues, however you feel about the DREAM Act, shouldn’t laws actually be passed by Congress first before the President begins enforcing them?
Because that’s what most of us were taught in Civics 101. Congress makes the law, the Presidents has veto power, but once approved the President is then charged with enforcing them.
I don’t think the President can enforce laws that Congress hasn’t approved any more than Congress can impose laws, short of an override vote, that the President has vetoed.
Tags: Barack Obama, dream act, illegal immigration, janet napolitano


