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Sessions Challenges President’s Decision to Circumvent Congress, Implement Backdoor Amnesty
Friday, June 15, 2012
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the Obama Administration’s decision to extend amnesty to certain illegal aliens through executive action:
“With its announcement today, the Obama administration has openly declared to the American people that it is determined to contravene the immigration laws of the United States, circumventing the will of the people and authority of its representatives in Congress. In fact, this policy is far broader than the version of the DREAM Act rejected by Congress on a bipartisan basis and contains almost no enforceable limits and requirements.
This mass backdoor amnesty is not limited to children: individuals who assert they are under thirty are eligible for work authorization and legal status. And while the administration purports that applicants for amnesty must have entered the country prior to the age of 16, it is a completely unenforceable and unverifiable standard. It will have a dramatic and adverse effect on ordinary enforcement activities. Thousands of simple deportation proceedings will be converted into prolonged trials over the age of entry. The administration has no plan, and will not attempt any serious effort, to prove when a person actually entered the United States and at what age. Clearly, a 40 year-old could, with a few documents, fraudulently assert they were thirty years old and were brought to the US at age 15. Practically, there is no effective way to dispute such a claim. This action, at bottom, is a prosecutorial policy not to enforce plain law.
It will also place a further strain upon limited resources as it will be easier for those granted work authorization to attain government benefits during this time of extraordinary debt.
Meanwhile, the border remains unsecure; this amnesty will not solve the underlying problem but simply lead to the next call for amnesty and the next after that. The way we unite, the way forward as a country, is to achieve a just, lawful immigration system of which we can all be proud and over which all Americans feel a vested interest in protecting. Otherwise, this debate—and the acrimony it fosters—will continue without end. Everyone should have empathy for those who were brought here by their parents at a young age and who seek legal status, which is why we have to prevent this problem from repeating by creating a lawful, orderly immigration system that serves everyone justly.
Presidents do not have the luxury of choosing which laws to enforce and which to discard; upholding the rule of law is the shared duty of all administrations and an essential, distinguishing feature of American democracy.
The Obama Administration has further revealed its political drive to focus on accommodating those who have entered the US illegally, while failing to take advantage of the opportunity to dramatically reduce illegality at the border.
The American people want their government to enforce the laws of this country fairly and equally. They want their leaders to secure our borders and restore confidence in our immigration system. All Americans, both immigrant and native born, will have a better future if America remains unique among nations for the special reverence it places in the impartial, dutiful application of the law.
The first task is to end the illegality, only then will we be able to join together in a united fashion to solve these complex, emotional issues in a principled and humane way for all.”
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