Letters page
Recently in this space, I included a view about the possibility of the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passing a hybrid “Cromnibus” budget bill that would involve funding of the federal government until next October while still allowing Congress to defund Obama’s executive amnesty early next year.
Scratch that premise. I was very, very wrong.
The only immediate way to stop Obama — and Establishment Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner — is to send a short term “Continuing Resolution” funding bill to the Democrat–controlled Senate this week. The House should also send language attached to the bill that forbids use of any funds to go to any action that issues work permits, Social Security Numbers and quasi-legal presence to a single illegal alien.
Without a huge and immediate expression of vocal public outrage, the Republicans in the House who are in league with the Chamber-of-Commerce- controlled-Speaker have no intention of using their inherent power to stop Obama — or to preserve the Constitution.
How bad is it? When asked about the defunding, Boehner said he would not commit to bringing up a bill in 2015 to strip critical funding to the Department of Homeland Security when Republicans have control of both houses of Congress.
Little over a month since the election in which Republicans ran and won as pro-enforcement conservatives, the Republican chairman of the powerful House Rules committee, Pete Sessions of Texas, revealed last week that House Republican leaders intend to give permanent legal status to most illegal aliens in the country.
Sessions said that we may soon see GOP legislation ensuring that “not one person” who is in the country illegally and has not committed a violent crime is “thrown out.” Got that? No? Let me help: He means that immigration laws only apply to people who have already crossed our borders illegally or overstayed a visa and then killed, robbed or raped someone. Otherwise … “Y’all come. We have plenty of jobs and our schools, welfare systems and common language are doing just great. And we need more low-income Democrat voters!”
Thanks to Breitbart News, we know that Sessions also made it clear that House Republican leaders want to have a “well understood agreement about what the law should be and how we as communities, and farm communities, and tech communities, create circumstances where we can have people be in this country and work, and where not one person is quote ‘thrown out’ or ‘deported’ — where we do keep families together, but what we do is we do so under a rule of law of an understanding.”
The Republican leadership plan, according to Sessions: “even in our wildest dream, would not be to remove any person that might be here unless they were dangerous to this country and committed a crime ... that was never even in a plan that I thought about.” Got it now?
On subverting the Constitution and starting the illegal executive amnesty ball rolling down a path to open borders, these Republican congressional leaders could easily be labeled “Obama-Republicans.” The vote on whether to fund Obama’s amnesty with a $1 trillion omnibus funding bill is going to happen this week. I am urging my Rep to vote “HELL NO.”
No matter their email alerts, recent posturing and their bombast, by close of business Friday, we will all know which side our own congressman is really on.
Something that must be repeated over and over until it is as important to and as well understood by the average American as ‘Dancing with the Stars:’ Once Obama issues a work permit and Social Security Number to an illegal alien, that process will likely never be undone. No “victim of borders” is ever going to see the process reversed. The Establishment Republicans and the liberal media would not allow it to happen. Honest.
Obama has already rented taxpayer-funded offices in Virginia and started the hiring process for federal workers to process his amnesty.
The time to stop this pathway to eventually swelling the Democrat voting rolls and a one-party America is today.
I would write more, but I need to call my congressman’s office.
D.A. King of Marietta is president of the Dustin Inman Society Twitter: @DAKDIS
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Establishment House GOPers set on amnesty
It is so sad that the News-Register editorial board wrote the editorial titled “President produces a reasonable response” — sad because you demonstrate that you don’t know or care that the president has created a constitutional crisis with his unlawful executive order regarding illegal immigrants. Executive orders are administrative tools for the functioning of the executive branch, not a license for the president to decree law. With very little research you can find Obama saying the same thing in the past. It is true that other presidents have abused the executive privilege, but none to this extent.
For the record, Article I of the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to “establish a uniform rule of naturalization.”
Your sympathies are all with the illegal immigrants who flout the rule of law that made this country a place where they want to come. Why not consider all the people who want to come here who are spending thousands of dollars, waiting in line and trying to respect our rule of law to come here legally? Obama has just shown those people the finger.
Today, Emperor Barack Hussein Obama will sign a decree giving five million illegal migrants the right to stay in America and giving them work permits. This will add another 5 million to the democrat voting base. Smooth move dude.
I am assuming that he has jobs for all of these immigrants.
Maybe next week he will issue a decree the deportation for the ninety one million Americans that are standing on the side lines looking for work.
You know, just to be fair and balance things out so the unemployment rates don't get any higher.
You can thank President Obama and Oregon Democratic officials who pick and choose when to follow laws and the Oregon Constitution
by Mike Nearman
The will of the people is poised to take another beating.
You’ll recall that in 2013 the Oregon State Legislature passed a bill to give driver cards to people who “could not prove legal residence.” In a May Day ceremony, the Governor signed the bill. However, thanks to a provision in the Oregon Constitution that gives the people the right to second-guess their legislature, the citizens of Oregon got out the clipboards and referred the Act to the people.
Before it could even go to the ballot, a bill was floated in the legislature to rewrite the ballot title, sidestepping the ballot title process which includes review by the Secretary of State, the Attorney General and the Supreme Court. So much for the will of the people. Happily, for the people of Oregon, this ballot title rewrite bill failed to pass.
On November 4th, despite overwhelming negative press and being outspent more than ten to one, the referendum went to the voters and the Act was struck down by a nearly two to one margin. 35 of Oregon’s 36 counties voted against it. Only in Multnomah County did it receive a majority. The “No” vote total on Measure 88 was greater than any other measure and far greater than what the governor received. In defiance of the legislature, nearly a million people voted to deny driver cards to illegal aliens. For a short time, it seemed like a triumph for the will of the voters.
But, hang on. We’re not done yet.
Now, in the wake of President Obama’s amnesty announcement, the DMV is consulting with the Oregon Attorney General and the Governor’s office to see if the approximately 64,000 illegal aliens living in Oregon – and eligible for the president’s new amnesty – might meet the requirements for “lawful presence” and be issued drivers’ licenses.
What do you suppose the chances are that the Oregon Attorney General will respect the will of the people and opine that this matter is settled by your Measure 88 vote? This is the same Attorney General who recently not only refused to defend the Oregon Constitution in court, but denied all others a chance to do so.
So, get ready. All you who signed the petition to put Measure 88 on the ballot, all you who voted no on Measure 88, the will of the voters is about to take another beating.
Mike Nearman was recently elected to the State Legislature from House District 23 and proudly voted no on Measure 88. He can be reached at Nearman4Oregon@yahoo.com.
NOTE: Mike Nearman also serves on the Oregonians for Immigration Reform Board
The U.S. House of Representatives has not passed comprehensive immigration reform, possibly because they knew Harry Reid would block it in the Senate.
After all, they have passed hundreds of bills on other topics which never make it to the Senate floor. Although the Senate passed a bill, that does not mandate that the House approve it. After all, that is exactly why we have two chambers.
While the president should try to work with Congress, he doesn't have the right to make up his own rules if they fail to pass the laws which he prefers. Clearly, the president's announcements on immigration are meant to change policy before the Republicans take control of the Senate in January and would finally be able to get legislation passed by both chambers.
If immigration reform were such a crisis, why did he wait six months from his earlier announcement until after the election?
Having waited the six months, what is the problem with waiting two months more? Such an action brings to mind a recent declaration from Jonathan Gruber.
Obama and immigration: The Oregonian editorial board apparently doesn't recognize the irony of writing that Republicans are "miffed" about illegal immigration. Every Oregon county but Multnomah just voted...not to give driver's cards to illegal aliens — ...most Democrats are "miffed," too.
Leave it to ideologues like Obama and the editorial board to defend lawless "mobocracy...
Anti-American bias is going out of style even as The Oregonian editorial board tries to shame citizens into funding their own marginalization.
The Oregonian editorial board ("Obama gets the substance right but not the process," Nov. 24) should begin by recognizing that we now have two branches of government...
Ask yourself not only, "What will happen now that President Obama may have stretched the limits of his executive authority?"...
What is the constitutional recourse for the executive in the event the legislative branch ceases to function — or even publicly defines its function solely as opposition to executive department proposals?
That's the question a president would have to ask. The answer cannot possibly be, "Do nothing" can it? You now have President Obama's answer: He will establish priorities and do as much as can be done.
Do you have a different answer?
Your articles about measure 88 were not the views of many Catholics. Immigrants are welcome and are allowed to apply for an Oregon Driver License. Illegal aliens are not. Lawbreakers should be punished, not rewarded. Measure 88 was funded by large organizations that want to take advantage of cheap laborers who work for low wages.
My 12 younger siblings and I worked all summer on the farm. Our children and grandchildren now are having a tough time finding jobs. I took my children with me to pick berries and teach them how to work. Since then Oregon has forbidden young children from fieldwork.
As a lifetime 83-year Catholic, I voted no on Measure 88.
The No on 88 campaign prevailed.
Obama is going around Congress to grant blanket amnesty to illegal aliens. Not only is this an insult to legal immigrants, as well as to those who applied through legal channels and are still waiting, but it is also a slap in the face to American citizens.
Citizens are expected to obey the law or face legal consequences and penalties. Citizens don’t have the option of thumbing their noses at laws they don’t like. Why should we make an exception for illegal aliens? No one has ever addressed that particular question.
As for “Dreamers,” it is not incumbent upon the U.S. government to make it OK that their parents violated our laws. The responsibility for those acts should rest on the lawbreakers themselves — the parents. Children of American citizens who have committed crimes do not qualify for blanket special considerations with respect to college admissions. Again, why should an exception be made for the children of illegals, who are themselves here illegally? Why should preference be given to non-citizens over citizens?
I can see no possible justification for any elected official to support any action that circumvents existing American laws.
Obama carefully deferred action on illegal immigration until after the election. He can’t run again. He won’t be held responsible at the polls in the next election. Those who support the illegal action he is taking, will be.
In response to Rep. Kurt Schrader's Nov. 21 guest opinion concerning President Obama's recent action on undocumented immigrants, he made the point that Congress had four years to bring legislation and didn't due to the "extremists" in the Republican caucus.
The truth is that the Democratic caucus is just as hamstrung but from the left. Case in point: Why didn't the Democratically controlled Congress bring comprehensive immigration legislation to the president in the first two years of his first term? They were too busy pushing what became the Affordable Care Act.
This current issue with granting legal status to individuals who entered this country illegally is going against current law and against the will of Congress. The way our system was designed to work is that if Congress isn't doing what the people want, replace them. This was done this mid-term.
Thus the president is not only going against the will of Congress and the law as written, but he also is going against the will of the majority of the American people.
If presidents keep doing this and we let them, it doesn't matter which party they are – we will soon end up with an autocrat as president.
