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Obama Must Enforce Immigration Law, Not Create It

February 23, 2015
Columns

We are a nation of immigrants. From Albert Einstein to Henry Kissinger to Fox News' Rupert Murdoch, many foreign born Americans have significantly influenced science and the arts in this great country, there is no denying that.

However, we are also a nation of laws – laws that we cannot just pick and choose which to follow. Unfortunately, rather than encourage legal immigration to increase America's competitiveness in a global economy, President Obama and his administration are rewarding lawbreakers who cut lines and cheat the system, and he is going around our government's lawmaking body to do this.

Announced in November of last year, President Obama's immigration plan, which was developed without any input from Congress, will shield as many as five million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Think about that. To put it in perspective, the population of the entire Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex is 6.7 million.

Besides operating beyond the scope of his power, the president's executive action on immigration is a slap in the face to those who came to the U.S. legally. Many of whom, like Einstein, fled their home countries to escape violence and persecution. While the president argues his plan is more effective than sending undocumented persons back home to their families, he is providing an incentive for continued illegal border crossings.

Last year, after the release of an internal Border Patrol memo, the Washington Post reported, "There is growing evidence that a surge of tens of thousands of Central American minors across the Mexican border into Texas is being driven in large part by the perception they will be allowed to stay under the Obama administration's immigration policies."

If we don't think that the message of come one, come all isn't making its way to Mexico and Central America we've got another thing coming. The numbers don't lie.

According to Governor Greg Abbott, 20,000 people have been apprehended crossing the Texas-Mexico border since January 1 of this year.

U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed 213,719 individuals attempting to unlawfully enter the U.S. in Fiscal Year 2014 – 56 percent of whom were previously convicted of a crime. Who knows how many more slipped through the cracks. On Sunday, CBS's Bob Schieffer reminded our governor that there are an estimated 800,000 illegal aliens living in Texas right now.

Last week I applauded a federal judge in Texas for freezing President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration.

While it came as no surprise that the president's Department of Justice on Monday sought to reverse Judge Andrew Hanen's ruling and continue its relentless push to impose its overreaching immigration policy, it is comforting to know that our system of government is capable of keeping even this president in check.

The Obama Administration's picking and choosing of which provisions of immigration statutes to enforce is a blatant disregard of his responsibility as the executive. As a self-proclaimed former constitutional law professor, President Obama should be very well aware that as president of the United States he is tasked with executing the law, not creating it.

Issues:Immigration & Border Security