Members of Congress Object to Administrative Amnesty, Call for Hearings

By Jon Feere and Jon Feere on August 30, 2011

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, recently sent a letter to President Obama urging him to stop his controversial decision to advance a non-legislative amnesty, stating that the policy is "undermining the enforcement of our immigration laws" and is a "direct assault on the fourteen million Americans and legal immigrants who are looking for a job to support themselves and their families." The letter is available online in PDF format.

The congressman calls it a "myth" that there is such a thing as jobs Americans won't do, and cites Census Bureau data as evidence. The Center for Immigration Studies provided similar statistics in a recent report. He also cited the recent ICE investigations of Chipotle restaurants which resulted in the firing of hundreds of illegal immigrants and employment for legal workers.

Clearly a matter of constitutional proportions, Gallegly wrote the following to President Obama:

Any discretion granted to you by Congress was intended to be limited and used rarely. Granting what is effectively an amnesty to 300,000 illegal immigrants in the process of being deported is a clear abuse of your discretion.


Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), vice chairman of the immigration subcommittee, shares the sentiment and recently called for hearings:

The President of the United States and all his federal appointees take an oath to the Constitution that requires that they "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." Our laws are to be enforced faithfully, not ignored or defied by the very people whose job it is to enforce them. I am calling for Congressional hearings on the Obama administration to put the President and all his cabinet members on notice that neither Congress nor the American people will tolerate such contempt for their own oath, the Constitution and the Rule of Law.

This is the latest example of the Obama administration acting as if it does not have to enforce laws if it finds those laws to be inconvenient. I will be insisting on Congressional hearings so that President Obama's appointees will have to answer questions under oath about their use of executive amnesty to reward immigration lawbreakers with the objective of their crime.


Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, also highlighted the serious problems created by the Obama administration:

If the Obama administration has its way, amnesty will be the official policy of the United States without a vote of Congress.


So far, the mainstream media are doing their best to avoid discussion of the constitutional implications of this highly-controversial move by the White House.