Obama to Announce Immigration Reform

Obama to Announce Immigration Reform

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

November 20, 2014

“I’m president of the United States, not emperor of the United States.” – Barack Hussein Obama, February 14, 2013

Who is he trying to convince – we the people or himself?

“I cannot ignore the laws… I can’t suspend deportations,” – still the words of Obama, oft repeated to the toll of at least 25 times on national television, regarding the sweeping immigration reform he is presumably going to announce tonight.

Obama is going to ignore the will of the people, the overwhelming majority of whom oppose any form of amnesty for illegal aliens, and legalize upwards of five million illegals in the United States. This is the same will of the people who have ousted nearly 70 Democratic members of Congress during Obama’s tenure in the White House, most recently on the November 4^th midterm elections with the issues of the Affordable Care Act a.k.a. Obamacare, and illegal immigration at the forefront of the voter’s minds.

This is a Constitutional crisis of epic proportions. So said both Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), a solid conservative, and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, an avowed liberal. Obama is “defying the law and he is defying the Constitution,” said Cruz on Fox News Wednesday night.

Obama has no legal authority to grant legal status to people in the United States illegally, said Texas governor-elect Greg Abbott (R), currently the state’s attorney general. Abbott further cited two sections of the United States Constitution prohibiting Obama’s desires – Article I, Section 8 and Article II, Section 3.

I can see two parts of Article I, Section 8 that would apply to both barring illegals from entering this country and prohibiting any president from legalizing them. “The Congress shall have Power to…establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization…,” not the president.

“The Congress shall have Power to… provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions…” In this part, the insurrection is actually coming from Obama himself, demonstrative of his violations of the Constitution, and the invaders are the illegals, who have no legal right to be present in the United States.

Article II, Section 3, referring to the executive, avers that “…he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed…”

Clearly, it is the job of the United States Congress to pass the laws and for the president, all presidents, to enforce those laws, not unilaterally defy those laws for which he does not particularly care. This is precisely why the Founding Fathers employed a co-equal, three branch system of government with no branch outranking the others. This was clear when we learned it in grade school, it should certainly be clear to Obama, who supposedly taught Constitutional Law.

Therein lies the double-edged sword. If the separation of powers as designed by the Founders is not clear to Obama, he is too stupid to be president, although that has not stopped others who preceded him. If it is clear, then Obama is willfully guilty of violating the Constitution in both theory and practice, for which there is a remedy – impeachment, as outlined in Article II, Section 4. “The President… shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

“It is illegal for Obama to make illegals legal,” said Fox News fixture Judge Andrew Napolitano, also citing the impeachment power of Congress as part of the system of checks and balances designed by the Founders to ensure no one branch exerts more power than is prescribed by the Constitution. The document is in place for a reason – actually numerous reasons.

Obama has no legal authority to grant illegals any rights. It is the tyrannical despot who oversteps the boundaries of the law as outlined by the governing document, in this case the United States Constitution, in place long before Obama assumed the mantle of leadership, and G-d willing, long after he departs the office he currently occupies.

It is up to the Congress to deny the Chief Executive overreaching authority, in this case, granting legal status to illegals. Congress must rein in this Chief Executive and demonstrate the validity of the co-equal branches of government as outlined in the Constitution. Should Obama be allowed to succeed in overreaching, an irreversible precedent could be established forever altering the balance of powers between the three branches and set the United States down a path from which it separated itself from Great Britain in the first place in 1776. (See also the Declaration of Independence.)

This is not an attack on Obama the man, but on Obama the duly elected Chief Executive with the responsibility to act as such as outlined in the Constitution.

It is high time those people in this country illegally be denied the perks and incentives that more often than not, brought them here in the first place. The billions of dollars’ worth of so-called entitlements must be cut off to the point of discouraging illegals from remaining in the United States and future miscreants from arriving here sans legal permission. This also includes amending the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution – the part granting citizenship to any and all persons born on American soil. This was designed to bestow citizenship on freed slaves. The anchor baby system of allowing the children of illegals to be automatic citizens should be halted. Those who are in the United States illegally should not be rewarded for their unlawful behavior.

This is not an emotional case, but one of the rule of law. There are laws in place that are not being followed by the illegal aliens, and they need to be penalized for their behavior – behavior they chose willingly. By the same design, Obama also needs to be held accountable for his actions – legal and illegal. If he chooses the course of action many Americans are expecting, the Congress must do its job – media be damned. The fourth estate has carried Obama’s water since he emerged on the national scene in 2004, and there will be shrieks of racism should impeachment hearings be conducted, but once again, this is about the rule of law, and not emotion.

The Congress must have the spine needed to do its job should Obama behave as expected.  Do not allow a trench to be dug too deeply it sets a precedent that permanently shifts power to one person in a manner that lead to the American Revolution, for a second one could render the United States indistinguishable from itself. The state of the world is ill-prepared and too fragile to swallow such a turn of events.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.