A Texas federal judge temporarily blocked President Obama’s executive order on immigration, reported The Washington Post. This block marks another Republican effort to obstruct progress in America.
According to the Washington Post, “the judge . . . did not rule on the legality of immigration orders but said there was sufficient merit to the challenge to warrant a suspension while the case goes forward.” This ruling was in response to a suit that 26 Republican-controlled states filed against the order.
Approximately 4.5 million undocumented immigrants are “potentially eligible” to qualify for work visas under Obama’s executive order. Immigrants whose children are natural-born citizens and have been living in the States for a minimum of five years qualify, removing the possibility of deportation.
Immigrants who came here as children and are of legal working age will qualify for two-year work permits.
As always, Republicans have found a way to completely over-blow the implications of Obama’s executive immigration order. Republican House Speaker said that Obama’s time as president is a “legacy of lawlessness.” Their main argument is that President Obama is breaking the law by circumventing Congress with these orders.
However, that’s not the case. Legal experts from both liberal and conservative camps have noted that the president is acting well-within legal parameters. Conservative legal experts reluctantly noted the legality of Obama’s actions.
“There is a difference between executing the law and making the law. . . If the Congress has enacted a statute that grants discretionary authority for the administrative agency or the president to fill in the gaps, to write the regulations that actually make the statute operative, those regulations to all intents and purposes make the law,” said Christopher Schroeder, the Charles S. Murphy Professor of Law and Public Policy Studies at Duke Law School. “I agree this can make us very uncomfortable. I just don’t see the argument for unconstitutionality at this juncture.”
As far as some legal experts are concerned, Obama isn’t breaking the law. However, Republican politicians and judges are abusing the law in order to curtail presidential actions that would otherwise become blocked in the first place against a useless, GOP-led Congress. This is further proof that the Republicans are a hindrance against American progress.
