Obama Amnesty Begins: Halts Deportations for 300,000 Illegal Aliens; Offers ‘Work Permits’

By John Hill on August 18, 2011 in ACTION CENTER, Blog, News

by John Hill
Stand With Arizona
The Obama Administration today announced a virtual amnesty-by-decree for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens, whose deportations will be “indefinitely delayed”. In addition, Obama finally announced a jobs program – but for ILLEGAL ALIENS, not citizens – as those 300,000 illegals will also become eligible for “work permits“.
This action represents an administrative end-run around Congress, which twice rejected the ‘DREAM Act’ in 2010. As disgraceful as is this usurpation of Congressional authority, this announcement is even worse than is being reported.
Our analysis reveals that – despite media focus of this action limited to so-called “Dreamer” illegal students, this new policy, coupled with the criteria established by the June 2011 “Morton Memos” which set up a joint “DHS and DOJ working group” could expand this “indefinite delay” of deportation to potentially MILLIONS of illegals – creating a new, massive amnesty entirely by fiat, bypassing Congress.
From the AP:

The Obama administration said Thursday it will indefinitely delay deporting many illegal immigrants who don’t have criminal records and will offer them a chance to apply for a work permit. The government will focus on sending back convicted criminals and those who might be a national security or public safety threat.
The policy change will mean a case-by-case review of approximately 300,000 illegal immigrants facing possible deportation in federal immigration courts, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.

This  is clearly what Sen. Dick Durbin was hinting at with his recent statement that there would be “good news” coming soon regarding deportations of “undocumented students”.
This announcement puts into writing what the Administration had already begun to put into practice, after the infamous “ICE Memos” issued by ICE head John Morton in June, in which Morton spells out which illegals would now receive “particular care and consideration” — e.g., amnesty – essentially “Dreamers”, but potentially millions more.
Under the new process, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) “working group” will develop specific criteria to identify “low-priority removal cases” that should be considered for prosecutorial discretion.  These criteria will be based on “positive factors” from the Morton Memo (PDF), which include…

• individuals present in the U.S. since childhood (like ‘DREAM Act’ students)
• minors
• the elderly
• pregnant and nursing women
• victims of serious crimes
• veterans and members of the armed services
• and individuals with serious disabilities or health problems

The breadth of the above list makes it less a matter of which illegal aliens are excluded than which ones are NOT. Minors, elderly, pregnant and nursing (could cover more than half of all childbearing-age illegal alien women!), victims of “serious” crimes (what defines “serious”?), disabilities/health problems(does diabetes count? depression?).
The Morton Guidelines above, coupled with today’s announcement suspending deportations equals a potential amnesty for MILLIONS of illegal aliens – all without ANY Congressional action or authorization.
This disgraceful end-run of the rule of law and constitutional principles must NOT stand!

PLEASE TAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS IMMEDIATELY:

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(1) Call Your Representative Now: * Find your elected officials HERE Congress is on August break so use the “Local” or “District” offices, and melt the phone lines. DEMAND Your Reps oppose the Obama amnesty and “Morton Memos”, and that they co-sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith’s HALT Act (H.R. 2497 PDF) which would bill would strip prosecutorial discretion away from DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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(2) Contact Reps. By E-Mail message: * Direct contact your House Rep. HERE

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(3) By Social Media: Go to SWA’s Facebook Page and Share this link to everyone you know. On Twitter, share this linkand use the hashtag “#noamnesty” in your tweet.