The Senate’s most vocal opponent of President Barack Obama’s immigration policies, cheered the Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to continue blocking Obama’s executive amnesty programs from moving forward.
“Today’s decision in United States v. Texas is not just a victory for Texas, Alabama, and a majority of the States in this great nation who challenged the lawless actions of the Obama Administration, but a victory for the American people and for the rule of law,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said Thursday of the divided Court’s 4-4 decision.
Though sated by the temporary victory, the Alabama lawmaker stressed that the ruling merely continues the immigration battle and does not cure the Obama administration’s effective abandonment of immigration enforcement.
“In November of 2014, the Obama Administration announced to the world that it was going on strike,” Sessions said recalling the president’s executive amnesty announcement. “It would cease enforcing immigration law.”
He continued, “Under the guise of exercising prosecutorial discretion, it explicitly directed law enforcement officers not to enforce the law – forcing them to violate their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States – and effectively eliminating entire sections of the United States Code.”
In conjunction with the changes to enforcement, Obama also announced the executive amnesty programs to grant work permits and de facto legal status to millions of illegal immigrants — known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). While the Supreme Court continued to block the programs from taking effect Thursday, the changes to enforcement remain.
“[T]his fight is far from over,” Sessions said. “The case now will be sent back for additional litigation on the merits of the case, and the ultimate outcome remains uncertain. What is clear, as highlighted by the egregious unethical conduct by the Department of Justice lawyers, in this case, is that this Administration will stop at nothing to forge ahead with its lawless plans – which arguably have already caused substantial damage to the integrity of our immigration system.”
According to Sessions, “The message that the Obama Administration has broadcast to the world is that ‘if you can get here, you can stay here.”
He recalled U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics showing that the number of illegal immigrant “families” apprehended at the southern border has already exceeded the number that was apprehended in all of fiscal year 2015 and that the total apprehensions of illegal immigrants at the border is on the rise as well. Additionally, Sessions mentioned the testimony of the president of the Border Patrol union, that at least 80 percent of the illegal immigrants apprehended at the border are released into the U.S.
“This simply cannot continue,” he stressed.
“The extent to which the Administration directed its officers not to enforce plain law is one of the most brazen acts of legal disobedience in the history of America,” he said. “Could the next President refuse to enforce tax laws he or she does not like? Why are our immigration laws any different?”
According to Sessions, Obama’s “lawless actions” are an an affront to the will of the American people and, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will take the President’s radical immigration agenda even further if elected in November.
“Hillary Clinton has promised to go even further than President Obama if she becomes President – promising to deport only violent felons and terrorists,” he said. “Moreover, if she gains the ability to appoint a new Justice to the Supreme Court, the outcome of a challenge to a similar executive amnesty could come out the other way.”
Sessions concluded by highlighting the generosity of the American immigration system and the right of the people to dictate the flow and see that the laws are actually enforced. He cautioned, however, about the prospect of a Clinton presidency.
“The actions and policies advanced by President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Democratic politicians are radical,” he said. “They are directly contrary to our constitutional principles and the will of the American people. They must be stopped.”
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