Executive Action
WASHINGTON
(AP) — President Barack Obama's anticipated order that would shield millions of
immigrants now living illegally in the U.S. from deportation is not without
precedent.
Two of
the last three Republican presidents — Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush — did
the same thing in extending amnesty to family members who were not covered by
the last major overhaul of immigration law in 1986.
There
was no political explosion then comparable to the one Republicans are
threatening now.
A tea
party-influenced GOP is poised to erupt if and when Obama follows through on
his promise. He wants to extend protection from deportation to millions of
immigrant parents and spouses of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, and
expand his 2-year-old program that shields immigrants brought illegally to this
country as children.
"The
audacity of this president to think he can completely destroy the rule of law
with the stroke of a pen is unfathomable to me," said GOP Rep. Steve King
of Iowa, an outspoken opponent of relaxing U.S. immigration law. "It is
unconstitutional, it is cynical, and it violates the will of the American
people."
Such
strong feelings are common among congressional Republicans. GOP leaders warn
that an executive order from Obama would "poison the well" and
severely damage Republicans' willingness to work with the president during his
final two years in office.
Some
Republicans have even raised the possibility of impeachment.
Nearly
three decades ago, there was barely a peep when Reagan and Bush used their
authority to extend amnesty to the spouses and minor children of immigrants
covered by the 1986 law.
In 1986,
Congress and Reagan enacted a sweeping overhaul that gave legal status to up to
3 million immigrants without authorization to be in the country, if they had
come to the U.S. before 1982. Spouses and children who could not meet that test
did not qualify, which incited protests that the new law was breaking up
families.
Early
efforts in Congress to amend the law to cover family members failed. In 1987,
Reagan's Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner announced that
minor children of parents granted amnesty by the law would get protection from
deportation.
Spouses
and children of couples in which one parent qualified for amnesty but the other
did not remained subject to deportation, leading to efforts to amend the 1986
law.
In a
parallel to today, the Senate acted in 1989 to broaden legal status to families
but the House never took up the bill. Through the INS, Bush advanced a new
"family fairness" policy that put in place the Senate measure.
Congress passed the policy into law by the end of the year as part of broader
immigration legislation.
"It's
a striking parallel," said Mark Noferi of the pro-immigration American
Immigration Council. "Bush Sr. went big at the time. He protected about 40
percent of the unauthorized population. Back then that was up to 1.5 million.
Today that would be about 5 million."
But a
lawyer who worked on the 1986 law and the 1990 follow-up as an aide to
then-Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., said Bush's action wasn't controversial because
it came after lawmakers had made it clear they were going to tackle the issue.
That's
not the case now.
"Bush
Sr. took the action that he did but it wasn't as if Congress was legislating
anything to the contrary," said Carl Hampe of Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen
& Loewy. "What's different now is that there is no clear path to
legislative relief for the class of beneficiaries for which the president's
order would provide relief."
Obama's
announcement could come as early as this coming week and cover as many as 5
million people. Like Bush, Obama is expected to extend deportation protections
to families of U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
"It's
clear that it's fully within his legal authority to issue these orders,"
said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas. He said Republicans 'didn't raise any
objections in the past when Republican presidents issued similar orders. This
is pure political theater."
Obama's
anticipated action would not award legal status, but it would offer temporary
protection from deportation and the possibility of obtaining a work permit.
"There's
always some precedent for prosecutorial discretion," said Rep. Trent Franks,
R-Ariz. "But this president would call tearing the Constitution into tiny
little pieces in the White House prosecutorial discretion."
House
Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is stopping short of threatening to use Congress'
power of the purse to thwart any executive action by Obama. Boehner's priority
is to avoid a government shutdown. But he made it clear that Republicans will
make Obama pay a price if he carries out his threat.
"Every
administration needs this and needs that, needs all kinds of things,"
Boehner said Thursday. "You know, if he wants to go off on his own, there
are things that he's just not going to get."
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