Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) brought his pet project to the forefront in the form of The Dream Act again recently. Only in America would a sitting U.S. Senator be given carte blanche on bringing 200 illegal immigrants to the Senate hearing to wear matching t-shirts and sit in solidarity for amnesty without any repercussions.
We continue to hear that illegal immigrants "live in the shadows" yet here they are in the bright light of day. Not to mention those who proudly wave the Mexican flag and attend the marches demanding citizenship and all its rights simply because they crossed our border.
Durbin's phony heart tugging didn't advance his legislative agenda.
From the halls of Congress, those individuals traveled to the gates of the White House, where they “complained that [President Barack] Obama had supported immigration reform with words and not deeds,” as Fox News reports. They hoped to pressure the President to bring about immigration reform in the Land of the Free. But behind the curtains, at stage left, Obama’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is already at work enacting provisions of the DREAM Act by executive fiat, despite the fact that the Senate rejected the bill last year by a vote of 55–41.
Whenever the bill is put to a vote, it continues to fail.
An unusual front page story was recently published by The Houston Chronicle - a liberal leaning newspaper. Entitled " 'Back-Door Amnesty' Confirmed", the story reported about the memos at ICE enabling the enforcement officers to turn a blind eye and dismiss cases if they see fit. Internal memos from the Houston office - going back to last August - instruct attorneys to review new and pending cases and to file paperwork to dismiss any they deem not to be "top priorities". Top ICE attorneys in D.C. approve of this new routine and encourage attorneys around the country to do the same. The claim is that this will free up resources to allow the agency to target dangerous criminals.
When The Houston Chronicle originally published a story about the memos last August, the ICE public affairs officials in D.C. refused to confirm or deny the dismissals. Later they claimed this affects only a small slice of cases. Now the memo is confirmed to be rescinded as of the day of the story.
In a memo from ICE, the department’s agents–who are charged with enforcing the country’s immigration laws–will be empowered to pursue or dismiss immigration cases against broad categories of illegal aliens who would have benefited from the legislation—without the DREAM Act even becoming law. The agency’s rationale? It has limited resources and therefore must exercise prosecutorial discretion where it sees fits. From the memo:
Because the agency is confronted with more administrative violations than its resources can address, the agency must regularly exercise “prosecutorial discretion” if it is to prioritize its efforts.
Coincidentally or conveniently, (pick your adverb), ICE’s prosecutorial discretion leads it to adopt enforcement parameters that bring about the same ends as the DREAM Act. Agents are to make enforcement decisions based on “the person’s length of presence in the United States,” “if the alien came to the United States as a young child,” “the person’s pursuit of education in the United States,” and “whether the person, or the person’s immediate relative, has served in the U.S. military,” among other factors.
So there you have it. The Obama agenda is to allow illegal immigrants amnesty using the same method used in other agenda items to determine the favored outcome - no votes in Congress for approval, simply try to make policy by Executive Orders and administrative maneuvers. Barack Obama is a master at this. Though he was so very fond of criticizing the Bush administration for using Executive Orders when they deemed it necessary, he is, in fact, taking it to a whole new level.
In the Houston Chronicle article, Senator Cornyn's Texas press secretary said, "It now appears that DHS attempted to mislead the public and Congress on its policy of directing dismissals of cases against criminal aliens. after this failed attempt at stonewalling and obstruction of the public's right to know, the truth is now coming out."
Houston ICE Union President Tre Rebstock confirmed that some detained were released though they had sexual assault charges in their files. He also confirmed that the dismissals ceased the same day the Houston Chronicle article was published. He said all of the decisions were from a political viewpoint since amnesty failed through votes in Congress. He said that the policy jeopardized public safety.
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