As promised in the previous blog, I would like to show you President Obama’s position on unilaterally changing immigration law….before he did just that.
Well, here, from Katie Pavlich’s must-read piece of November 19, 2014, is your answer:
October 2010: Obama on Immigration Reform “I am Not a King”
“My cabinet has been working very hard on trying to get it done, but ultimately, I think somebody said the other day, I am president, I am not king,” Obama told Univision in October 2010, when asked why he had yet to achieve comprehensive immigration reform.
March 2011: Remarks by the President Univision Townhall
“America is a nation of laws, which means I, as the President, am obligated to enforce the law. I don’t have a choice about that. That’s part of my job. But I can advocate for changes in the law so that we have a country that is both respectful of the law but also continues to be a great nation of immigrants. … With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed …. [W]e’ve got three branches of government. Congress passes the law. The executive branch’s job is to enforce and implement those laws. And then the judiciary has to interpret the laws. There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as President.”
“I swore an oath to uphold the laws on the books …. Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. Believe me, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. I promise you. Not just on immigration reform. But that’s not how our system works. That’s not how our democracy functions. That’s not how our Constitution is written.”
Yes, this is the same President who, then, gave us DACA.
Any questions? Like, for example, “How could he have done that, when he, himself, admitted he could not”? Or, “Why didn’t media jump all over him when he did this”?
Yeah, I have the same questions.
