DHS Amnesty Guidelines Shed Light on the Open-ended Nature of this Illegal Power Grab, Charges FAIR

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) called today's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "outline" for implementing deferred action for millions of illegal aliens, "further evidence of the Obama administration's determination to carry out a massive amnesty for illegal aliens through illegal and unilateral action." The Obama administration is set to begin implementing the DREAM Act amnesty on August 15, even though the legislation was defeated by Congress as recently as December 2010.

Today's announcement, which comes on the same day as July unemployment data indicates that 8.3 percent of the U.S. labor force remains out of work, confirms that a work authorization will be stapled to the back of every grant of deferred action. "In addition to a massive amnesty that Congress never legislated, the announcement that work authorization will be granted to anyone who can 'demonstrate an economic necessity to work' – in other words virtually everybody – is a unilateral move on the part of the Administration to nullify a critical immigration law Congress did enact," commented Dan Stein, president of FAIR.

Today's announcement included concrete assurances for illegal aliens that information provided by applicants will not be used against them in the future. However, information released by DHS and in a telephonic news conference conducted by Alejandro Mayorkas, director the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provide little assurance that the interests and security of the American people will be protected in the process.

• Four processing centers will accept applications, but applicants will not be required to present themselves for in-person interviews. This procedure will make it virtually impossible to detect fraudulent application, or identify aliens with criminal records, gang members, or those with ties to terrorist groups.
• Application fees of just $105 (which can be forgiven for applicants with incomes of less than 150 percent of poverty level) preclude any sort of meaningful background investigations and are likely to leave American taxpayers on the hook for many of the costs for the Administration's backdoor amnesty.
• More than one million illegal aliens (by conservative estimates) will shortly become eligible to compete with some 23 million unemployed and underemployed American workers for virtually every available job in the U.S.

"With today's announcement, the pretense that the Obama administration is merely exercising discretion is gone. This is legislating, plain and simple, and it is stealing from the American people and Congress the power that is rightfully theirs.  What will be carried out in just twelve days is nothing short of a radical and unilateral rewrite of U.S. immigration laws by the Executive Branch," Stein charged.

"Unfortunately, our constitutional system doesn't provide a lot of protection for the American people when a chief executive abandons his oath of office to uphold the laws of the land. The constitutional system has been thrown into chaos by a president who is ignoring his responsibilities to carry out the federal law," said Stein.  "Congress must step in and circumscribe these actions, and ensure there is proper legal standing to challenge this lawless behavior," he concluded.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national, nonprofit, public-interest, membership organization of concerned citizens who share a common belief that our nation's immigration policies must be reformed to serve the national interest

SOURCE FAIR