DOJ Argues Exec Amnesty Won't Attract More Illegal Immigrants, Is Not 'Amnesty'

DOJ Argues Exec Amnesty Won't Attract More Illegal Immigrants, Is Not 'Amnesty'

In asking a federal judge to dismiss Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s lawsuit asking for an injunction on President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty, the Justice Department claimed that President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty will not attract more illegal immigrants and is not even amnesty. 

In its Monday evening filing, the Justice Department argued that Arpaio’s claim that “deferred action serves as a magnet for more illegal entries by aliens who will then commit crimes within his county and thus burden his law enforcement resources” is a “theory” that is “speculative and unsubstantiated.” 

The Arizona (Maricopa County) sheriff filed his lawsuit hours after Obama enacted his executive amnesty, arguing that Obama’s executive amnesty “fundamentally transforms the definition of key terms to create a radically new and different regime of immigration law and regulation.”

In addition, the Department of Justice claimed that Obama’s executive amnesty is not actually “amnesty” for illegal immigrants because it “does not grant legal status to any alien. Rather, it authorizes a temporary exercise of prosecutorial discretion on a case-by-case basis for certain individuals who have been in the United States since 2010 and have deep ties to the community, while making work authorization available under existing statutory authority.”

The Justice Department told the court that Obama’s executive amnesty serves to “enhance DHS’s capacity to focus limited resources on threats to national security, border security, and public safety” and “to recognize family ties and other humanitarian concerns under” the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA). Justice Department lawyers also accused Arpaio of ignoring “the reality that these initiatives promote border security and prevent crime.”

A U.S. District Court judge (Beryl Howell), whom Obama appointed, will hear the case on December 22 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Howell granted Arpaio an expedited hearing on the matter.

Twenty-four states have also sued the Obama administration over Obama’s executive amnesty, while another federal judge ruled Obama’s executive amnesty was unconstitutional this week. 

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