LETTER FROM REP. RON DeSANTIS: On Thursday, President Barack Obama announced that he would unilaterally grant amnesty to roughly 5 million illegal immigrants. The President’s policy suspends immigration enforcement laws and provides positive benefits – such as work permits and Social Security numbers – for these illegal immigrants. The President’s edict is constitutionally suspect, has negative policy implications, and merits a forceful response from Congress. Constitutional Impropriety. It has often been said that ours is a government of laws, not of men. This famous maxim actually predates the U.S. Constitution and is found in Article XXX of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, which provided that: In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them; the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them; the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them; to the end it may be a government of laws, and not of men. This basic insight is the cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution and the American political system. The President cannot change the law by fiat. Obamas immigration edict usurps the legislative power of Congress, damages our constitutional system, and creates a precedent that will likely lead to the further erosion of our liberty. Would the same Founding Fathers who fought a revolution against George III have created a constitution that permitted the executive to legislate around Congress whenever Congress declined to bend to the executives will? President Obama has repeatedly acknowledged that the President can do no such thing, yet on Thursday, he tossed aside his own understanding of our foundational document and made himself a constitutional outlaw. What about the voice of the American people? They get no say in this matter. The Presidents illegal executive amnesty is bigger than the 1986 amnesty which was actually passed by Congress and signed by President Reagan. Obamas arrogance and contempt for the people are breathtaking. Policy implications. 1. More Illegal Immigration. The Obama amnesty order will fuel more illegal immigration into our country. That is the lesson of the 1986 amnesty, which was supposed to “solve” the problem of illegal immigration by amnestying 3 million illegal immigrants. Of course, since the 1986 amnesty illegal immigration into the United States has quadrupled. This past summer Americans witnessed a large number of women and minors illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border in response to Obama’s mini-amnesty (for illegal immigrants who arrived as minors) that he (unlawfully) issued in 2012. Obama’s order incentives individuals to eschew the legal immigration process in favor of illegally immigrating to the U.S. 2. Harm to legal immigrants and U.S. citizens. When Obama issued his mini-amnesty edict back in 2012, the wait times for prospective legal immigrants – including spouses of U.S. citizens – tripled because Obama prioritized administering his amnesty for illegal immigrants over processing applications of legal immigrants. As one U.S. citizen complained, “You feel as if you did things the right way and you are penalized for it.” Obama justified Thursday’s amnesty order in part on the need to keep families together, yet his edict will have the effect of keeping U.S. citizens separated from their prospective legal immigrant spouses and children. 3. Bad for taxpayers and U.S. workers. Obama’s amnesty will allow illegal immigrants to obtain Social Security numbers. While this is couched as a way to allow these individuals to pay the taxes, the effect will be to make the illegal immigrants qualify for certain taxpayer-financed benefits, such as refundable tax credits and Medicare. It is not yet clear whether illegal immigrants will qualify for ObamaCare exchange subsidies, but if they do that will surely be at a significant cost to the taxpayer. Interestingly, if amnestied illegal immigrants are not eligible for exchange subsidies, they would also be exempt from ObamaCare’s employer mandate. This creates an incentive for employers to hire an amnestied illegal worker over low-income U.S. citizens. The Congressional Response. The constitutional structure presumes that those in office will seek to aggrandize power for themselves. Fearing the concentration of power in one branch, the Founders equipped each branch with the constitutional means necessary to resist encroachments by the others. “Ambition,” James Madison wrote in The Federalist No. 51, “must be made to counteract ambition.” Congress needs to use all of its constitutional means at its disposal to prevent the President from getting away with this usurpation. From denying funds to the agencies inside the DHS who will be responsible for administering the amnesty program to refusing to confirm appointees to Obama’s government, there is much that a united Congress can do to check the President and vindicate the constitutional order. For more frequent updates on legislation and events, please follow me on Facebook and Twitter. I look forward to hearing from you; please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, Port Orange, or St. Augustine office should you need any assistance. Sincerely, Congressman Ron DeSantis
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 02:45:11 +0000
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