Friday, June 15, 2012

President Obama Tramples the Constitution and Thumbs His Nose at American Workers


In an obvious attempt to woo Latino voters, President Obama announced that he is rewriting our immigration laws by fiat.  Instead of allowing Congress to write and rewrite laws which is its constitutional duty, President Obama announced that his administration will stop deporting and begin granting work permits to younger illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children and have since led law-abiding lives.

The election-year initiative is obviously designed to pander to the Latino electorate.  I have no doubt that Democrats and the liberal media will proclaim this as a brilliant political move instead of the unconstitutional act it truly is.  Yet, one must ask why President Obama needs to make such an obvious overture toward Latino voters.  He carried their vote handily just four years ago.  Could it be that his policies have completely failed America?  The unemployment rate within the Latino community is higher than the national average. 

However, I think the move will ultimately backfire for two reasons.  First, it will backfire because voters will likely conclude that our poor economy and the lack of jobs is the most important issue facing the country.  Mr. Obama has failed completely on all matters of Domestic policy.  This will prove to be his downfall.

Second, the result of this policy will be to add millions of workers to the legal labor force. Millions of illegal immigrants will now be able to legally compete with American workers.  Considering that there are almost no jobs created by this administration to begin with, and further considering that the economy outright stinks, this policy does nothing but stick a thumb in the eyes of American workers.

Will the unions have anything to say about this matter?  This is an outright assault on American workers.  Between this and Obama's failure to truly embrace the unions' efforts in Wisconsin, I just cannot see how union households could possibly support President Obama this Fall. 

It is time for the Constitution to be defended.  It is time for Americans to vote Mr. Obama out of the White House.  We need a President who will respect our Constitution and who will push for policies that will actually get our economy moving again instead of pressing for more class warfare.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you Rich. I've been with IBEW for years. Getting jobs is harder and harder. Now I and my union brothers have to compete with illegals made legal by Obama?

I'm not voting for Obama. No way. I'll either hold my nose and vote Romney or I'll just stay home.

Andrew Champ-Doran said...

Mr.Cahill,

I disagree with your central premise. This is an Executive Order, which is certainly constitutional. The President, through the constitution, has as much right to discretion in how federal laws are prosecuted as, say Holly Carnright has to select his prosecution of the laws of New York State. The President certainly has a great deal more discretion in enforcing Federal law than the legislatures of Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia. If the next President wants to rescind this order, he or she may, under the constitution, with their own Executive Order.

As far as Congress making laws regarding immigration policy, they have every right to do so, but, as you can see, they refuse. Congressional "Leadership" have said that they will continue, at least through this year, to refuse to take up any immigration legislation. In fact, all of Congress have sworn an oath to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Unfortunately, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell instead continues to say that Republican members of Congress have one real job, that is to make "Obama a one-term President."

I will agree that this is an astute political move, and I can see why Republicans are upset with it. They are left in the position of supporting this policy, or denouncing it, thereby alienating important Latino voters' groups, or coming up with something on their own.

The gist of the order is this, "Appearing in the Rose Garden at the White House, Obama announced Friday that, effective immediately, young immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally before age 16 and spent at least five continuous years here would be allowed to stay and apply for work permits if they had no criminal history and met other criteria, such as graduating from high school or serving honorably in the military."

Really, this is a far cry from putting millions of illegals in direct competition with American workers. I don't know the exact figures, but this has been studied ad nauseum, and i know of no credible source that says anything other than the numbers of illegals that fit the above criteria are well below a million. Of those, how many are competing for the skilled, high-paying jobs that Americans are willing to do? I can tell you that when times are hard here in the U.S., fewer and fewer come here illegally looking for work. The complaints have been loud from business owners and farmers in Arizona, Alabama, and Georgia. Apparently, they can't get any workers to replace the illegal aliens that have fled their jobs in fear of deportation and criminal prosecution.

-Andrew Champ-Doran
KingstonBarn.wordpress.com

Richard T. Cahill Jr. said...

Mr. Champ-Doran,

The President does not have the constitutional authority to refuse to do his job. The job of the President is --among other things-- to enforce the law, not refuse to enforce it.

It is far different thing for a District Attorney to decide not to prosecute an individual case because of weak evidence or a unique circumstance. It is more akin to a district attorney announcing that he will no longer prosecute drug dealers because he considers it "free enterprise" or he disagrees with the law.

We are a nation of laws. President Obama is willfully refusing to enforce the laws of the United States because he thinks it might help him in the polls with a certain portion of the electorate.

Finally, if you think illegal immigrants will not look to take advantage of this opportunity and start seeking jobs away from United States citizens, then there is no point debating this with you because your head would clearly be in the sand at that point.