Former Immigration Judge Schools Open-Borders Congressman on Immigration Law 101
February 20, 2024
On February 15, in the context of the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs held a hearing on the “Consequences of Catch and Release at the Border.” Lawmakers had the opportunity to ask questions of Matt O’Brien, Director of Investigations at FAIR’s legal arm, the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), as well as Jessica Vaughan (Director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies) and Jason P. Houser (a former ICE chief of staff). Of many interesting exchanges perhaps the most illustrative – and undoubtedly entertaining – was Rep. Dan Goldman’s (D-N.Y.) failed attempt to score points while attempting to trip up Mr. O’Brien. Instead, the exchange underlined the truth about existing presidential power to stop the border crisis.
Mr. O’Brien, a former immigration judge and three-decade veteran of immigration law and policy, cut to the heart of the matter in his testimony, stating that “just as the assertion that our immigration system is broken is a myth, so is the claim being advanced by the Biden Administration that it somehow lacks the authority to deal with the present crisis.” In fact, “[t]he Supreme Court was abundantly clear in its holding in Trump v. Hawaii (…) that 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f) confers upon the President the authority to close the border in response to a crisis (…) Everything that is now happening along the border with Mexico could be stopped with the stroke of a pen if the President were at all interested in stopping it.” (Note: the Trump v. Hawaii case concerned a Trump Administration ban on the entry of nationals from several terrorism-ridden countries of the world – such as Iran, Somalia, Sudan, or Syria – which the Supreme Court upheld in 2018.)
Rep. Goldman questioned Mr. O’Brien as to the legal basis of presidential authority to “shut down” the border.
https://www.fairus.org/blog/2024/02/20/former-immigration-judge-schools-open-borders-congressman-immigration-law-101
