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CNS' Jeffrey: Obama Aims to Grant Federal Benefits to Illegal Immigrants
Thursday, April 7, 2016 12:22 PM
By: Sandy Fitzgerald
President Barack Obama says he has the power to allow illegal immigrants to be eligible for federal benefits through the guise of "prosecutorial discretion," and that he will not enforce the law against them for being in the country, CNS News Editor-in-Chief Terence Jeffrey says in an editorial.
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli plans to use that argument before the Supreme Court, where he will argue that Obama "can make millions of people in this country illegally eligible for Social Security, disability and Medicare," Jeffrey writes in the Wednesday piece.
The court will hear the arguments in a case filed by Texas and other states that complains the administration's Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents program, or DAPA, goes against Congress' framework that determines who may enter and stay in the country.
And in the Obama administration's response, Verrilli says DAPA would legalize immigrants, and that the administration can remove them from the United States "at any time." But still, he said the administration can allow people to stay under a "deferred" status.
While Verrilli says the deferred action status makes an illegal immigrant ineligible for federal public benefit programs, they are still eligible for "earned-benefit" programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Meanwhile, since such immigrants are not given lawful immigration status and can be removed at any time, that puts Obama in violation of breaking a Constitutional law that requires he "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," Jeffrey writes.
"The Obama administration has taken care of just one thing here: It has constructed a convoluted — and unconvincing argument — it hopes will provide the activists on the Supreme Court with a cover story to explain why this president need not faithfully execute the nation's immigration laws," Jeffrey concludesd.
