Obama Grants Administrative Amnesty, Again

The president’s stealth amnesty campaign moves forward, unchecked by the law, prevailing sentiment, or common sense. Barack Obama, unable to pass the DREAM Act through an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, has proceeded to act as though it were the settled law of the land and ignore his constitutional duty to protect our porous (and violent) southern border. Instead, he handcuffs states, localities, and federal agencies that may wish to deport the nation’s illegal underclass — or, as he refers to them, future Democratic voters. Most recently, yet another federal agency charged with apprehending and deporting illegal immigrants has granted de facto amnesty to all illegals not (yet) guilty of a second serious crime.

The latest front in Obama’s bureaucratic revolt against the masses came in the form of a new memo issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) entitled, “Revised Guidance for the Referral of Cases and Issuance of Notices to Appear (NTAs) in Cases Involving Inadmissible and Removable Aliens.” This directive guides agents as to when they may give illegal aliens an NTA, a summons to immigration court hearing that may end in their deportation and blessed deliverance from this land of Yankee persecution. The memo states, “USCIS must ensure that its issuance of NTAs fits within and supports the Government’s [sic.] overall removal priorities.” The new memo “identifies the circumstances under which USCIS will issue an NTA, or will refer the case to ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] for NTA issuance.”

The new policy states USCIS will continue to issue NTAs required by statutory law, to protect national security, or to punish “egregious public safety cases” or apprehend felons. All other cases will be referred to ICE — which is now governed by Director John Morton’s memos. Morton’s decisions resulted in the dismissal of thousands of pending immigration cases last summer. When confronted by an inquisitive press and a piqued public about why the feds were pointedly refusing to carry out their legal obligations, ICE officials lied to Congress about the extent of the administrative amnesty.

Since that opening salvo, stealth amnesty has marched forward apace. Janet Napolitano wrote in an August 18 letter to Harry Reid that the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department were in the process of establishing an “interagency working group to execute a case-by-case review of all individuals currently in removal proceedings to ensure that they constitute our highest priorities.” Those priorities are not to deport anyone not already guilty of violent crimes or violations of national security.

This memo just cemented shut another avenue honest immigration agents could have pursued to deport illegal immigrants.

Conservatives and Republicans — by no means interchangeable groups — who are overly confident about defeating Obama in the 2012 election do the nation no favors by dismissing impeachment out-of-hand. Should Obama be defeated, he will retain the full use of the executive branch of government until January 2013 to continue imposing his far-Left will on the American people. Obama has done enough damage as it is.