5 reasons to oppose Obama on amnesty

By Kenric Ward | Watchdog.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After six years of promises, President Obama is poised to take executive action on immigration reform as early as this week.

Frustrated by what he calls a “do-nothing” Republican House of Representatives, Obama reportedly will grant amnesty to up to 5 million unauthorized immigrants.

The president’s move would be consistent with administration policies, which have done little or nothing to secure the border and enforce immigration laws.

Here are five reasons to just say no to Obama and his fellow amnesty enthusiasts:

1. BREAKDOWN AT THE BORDER: Total deportations credited to Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined 15 percent from 2013 to 2014. Most of these deportation were at the border.
2. INTERIOR MESS: Deportations from the interior dropped 34 percent from last year and are 58 percent lower than the peak in 2009.
3. EASIER ON CRIMINALS: The number of criminal aliens deported from the interior declined 23 percent since last year and is down 39 percent since the peak in 2011.
4. FELONS GO FREE: in 2014, deportation processing was initiated for only about 143,000 aliens out of the 585,000 encountered by agents. Tens of thousands of those let go by ICE agents had been labeled a criminal threat.
5. IN THE WIND: The number of aliens who have received a final order of removal but who are still in the United States has risen to nearly 900,000. Nearly 160,000 of these are convicted criminals who were released by ICE and are currently at large.

The statistics, compiled by the Center for Immigration Studies, are buttressed by a federal lawsuit filed this month by a long-time ICE attorney.

As reported by Watchdog last week, Patricia Vroom alleged her Arizona office was ordered by the administration to use broad “prosecutorial discretion” to release criminal aliens and drop deportation cases.

Staff lawyers’ objections to the increasingly loose policies dismissed. “We don’t give a s***,” one supervisor reportedly said. Another called Vroom’s office “f***d up.” Government adjudicators and attorneys who tried to enforce existing laws were purged from their positions.

Key elements of the president’s plan are said to be based on the highly subjective concept of prosecutorial discretion that became a legal lightning rod in Arizona.

That “discretion,” noted Talk Radio New Service, was the basis of a 2012 decision to block deportation of individuals brought into this country illegally as children. These protected Dreamers are now as old as 31.

House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that if Obama unilaterally imposes a “path to citizenship,” House Republicans would “fight the president tooth and nail.”

Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House — which has an even larger Republican majority after this month’s elections — would consider suing Obama over any executive orders on immigration.

VIDEO: Previewing Obama’s 10-point plan.

Kenric Ward is a national reporter for Watchdog.org and chief of its Virginia Bureau. Contact him at (571) 319-9824. @Kenricward