(Freedom.news) A newly leaked internal Department of Homeland Security memo that was produced as part of an off-the-record policy conclave indicates that the Obama administration is actively planning to bypass a federal court injunction that suspended a portion of last November’s deferral-based amnesty initiative, writes Ian M. Smith, an investigative associate with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, at The Hill on Tuesday.
The memo, which appears to have been prepared as a follow-up from a DHS “Regulations Retreat” over the summer, will most likely re-animate members of Congress who have repeatedly expressed outrage and concern over President Obama’s questionably legal immigration actions, as well as federal judges on the Fifth Circuit Court.
“The Administration has already been criticized from the bench for handing out work permits to hundreds of thousands of deferred action beneficiaries, in direct violation of a district court’s order. With the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals deciding any day now whether to deny the Administration’s request to reverse that injunction, this public leak has come at a critical juncture for U.S. enforcement policy,” Smith wrote.
In June Texas U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen ordered Obama’s amnesty programs – the DAPA and Expanded DACA – frozen, but the administration, via DHS, continued to grant work permits for a time afterward. The DHS regulations retreat was held to discuss “different options” for “open market Employment Authorization Document (EAD) regulatory changes.” EAD is the statutory term for work permits.
“From a memo recording these discussions, we now know that the Obama DHS has, rather than pausing to allow the courts to assess the constitutionality of its enforcement nullification initiatives, been gearing up to roll out one or more of four plans drawn up at the meeting, each one designed to provide EADs to millions of nonimmigrants, including those lawfully present and visa overstayers, crippling the actual employment-based visa system on the federal statute-book,” Smith wrote.
If left unchecked, the DHS policy changes could essentially grant work permits – against a federal order – to millions more who are in the U.S. illegally.
“By claiming absolute authority to grant work authorization to any alien, regardless of status, DHS is in effect claiming it can unilaterally de-couple the 1986 IRCA work authorization statutes from the main body of U.S. visa law,” Smith said. “While DHS must still observe the statutory requirements for issuing visas, the emerging doctrine concedes, the administration now claims unprecedented discretionary power to permit anyone inside our borders to work.”
DHS policymakers, who were not listed by name in the document, stated that a positive for this option is that it “could cover a greater number of individuals.” They state that since a number of illegal aliens working in the country “have already had the U.S. labor market tested,” it’s been “demonstrate[ed] that their future employment won’t adversely affect U.S. workers.”
Says Smith: “Apparently, the fact that 66 million Americans and legal aliens are currently unemployed or out of the job market was not a discussion point at the DHS ‘retreat,’” after decades of foreign labor dumping into the American working class, which is disproportionately affected U.S. minotiries, working mothers, the elderly and students.
“Bottom line: The memo foreshadows more tactical offensives in a giant administrative amnesty for all 12 million illegal aliens who’ve broken our immigration laws (and many other laws) that will emerge before the next inaugural in January 2016,” Smith continued. “This would seem to say that DHS, the largest federal law enforcement agency in the nation, is banking on awarding those who’ve broken our laws and violated our national sovereignty.”
At present, 26 states have filed legal challenges to Obama’s DAPA program. Smith says hopefully those states will bring the memo he unearthed to the attention of the Fifth Circuit Court.
“If this document is indeed the cutting edge of Obama’s strategy for DHS to circumvent Judge Hanen’s injunction order, it would confirm the Administration’s bad faith and contempt both for the court and the law,” he said.
See the document here.
See also:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dwcu66m3vnj9nta/USCIS_Memo_for_EAD_for_I140_June2015.pdf?dl=0