The Obama administration last Friday through the Dept. of Homeland Security announced that his administration would stop deporting younger illegal immigrants, allowing them instead to apply for work permits if they meet certain criteria. Congressman Lynn Westmoreland in a response to the announcement said Pres. Obama essentially side-stepped Congress and is acting more like “the dictator of his own kingdom.”
Announced June 15 by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and in a move intended to take effect immediately, the action would no longer seek deportation of illegal immigrants who entered the United States at a young age and would allow them to apply for work permits. The action would affect approximately 800,000 illegal immigrants,
Westmoreland in a June 15 response to the announcement was quick to fire off his impression of the administration’s decision.
“President Obama is the president of this republic, not the dictator of his very own kingdom,” Westmoreland said. “He cannot just dictate which laws passed by Congress should be enforced. They should all be enforced. If we allow our president to simply instruct federal officials to disregard this law, it opens the flood gate to giving him almost unlimited power. Clearly, the president is trying to regulate the controversial DREAM Act into law in an election year to win support at the voting booth. And if I have anything to say about it, it’s not going to work.”
Westmoreland said that under the new plan, illegal immigrants will be immune from deportation if they came to the United States before they turned 16 years old, are younger than 30 years old and have been in the country for at least five continuous years. In addition, they must have no criminal history, have graduated from a U.S. high school or earned a GED or served in the military. If they meet these criteria, they will also be eligible for a work permit good for two years with no limits on how many times it can be renewed. Officials have stated that while children who are younger than 16 will not be eligible for the deportation waiver, they too will not be deported.
“The president’s announcement shows his complete disregard for our laws,” said Westmoreland. “If he does not like the law, he should work with Congress to change the law in a legal and proper manner. Until then, instructing federal officers not to enforce the laws on the books only encourages others to break our laws. We have an illegal immigration problem in this country because we have a broken legal immigration system. But that doesn’t mean we should take the easy route and just ignore the problem. Instead, we need to work to fix it. Of course, the campaigner-in-chief doesn’t have time to actually legislate, he’s too busy giving speeches and collecting campaign checks. So he’s decided he will just dictate law from the campaign trail rather than bother with actually following the rule of law established in the Constitution. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”
