White House Promises Border Security, but DHS Memo Authorizes More Discretion

While President Obama is touting his immigration order as a commonsense solution to fixing the proverbial “broken immigration system,” law enforcement officers in border states are getting an altogether different message from the Department of Homeland Security.

In anticipation of its nationwide full-court press to sell President Obama’ executive amnesty action, the White House assembled a tidy but unconvincing list of four principles that allegedly will be the cornerstones of immigration Obama-style. The four principles are increased border security, streamlined legal immigration, earned citizenship and strict penalties for employers that knowingly hire aliens.

The only one of the four that has a chance to be implemented is expeditious processing of legal immigration that would include more visas, and permanent residency for some foreign-born students who graduate from U.S. universities.

Only the most naive believe that fines and jail time will ever be imposed on dishonest employers who hire illegal immigrants. Ditto for those who buy into the beefed-up border security deceit. Both enforcement measures have been routinely promised and subsequently ignored since the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. As for earned citizenship, Obama insists that it would require background checks, learning English and going to the back of the line – pie-in-the-sky nonsense.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Pima County Sheriff Paul Babeu made public a memorandum he received from Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson dated November 20, the same day as Obama’s White House amnesty announcement. In the memo, DHS ordered Customs and Border Protection to continue exercising prosecutorial discretion while Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to release more criminals under the guise that they’re nonviolent offenders.

Consider the duplicity. While Obama pledges more border security, he’s advising border agents to ignore illegal immigration, limit the numbers of “orders to appear” and release aliens into the public.
As long as illegal immigration goes unchecked, the number of aliens who will eventually qualify for Obama’s rewards package of amnesty, work permits and Social Security cards will grow.

Illegal immigrants will not be able to file for amnesty privileges until late spring. Please go to the CAPS Action Alert page here and call Congress to demand that your representatives block Obama’s administrative amnesty that preempts U.S. immigration law.