During a town hall even hosted by the MSNBC cable network, President Barack Obama pointedly warned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to implement his illegal executive amnesty order or else.
The president’s warning came in response to concerns expressed by some in attendance that the Administration might resume the deportation of illegal immigrants following an injunction signed by Federal Judge Andrew S. Hanen to enjoin Obama from suspending the deportation of more than 5.5 million illegal aliens living in the United States.
Talking about the legal battle underway to stop Executive Amnesty in the courts, Obama said:
“Until we pass a law through Congress, the executive actions we’ve taken are not going to be permanent; they are temporary. There are going to be some jurisdictions and there may be individual ICE official or Border Control agent not paying attention to our new directives. But they’re going to be answerable to the head of Homeland Security because he’s been very clear about what our priorities will be. . .”
“If somebody’s working for ICE … and they don’t follow the policy, there’s going to be consequences to it.”
Earlier in the week, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) echoed the president’s warning with this prediction. The federal judge’s injunction against (the president’s) temporary amnesty program would activate an unprecedented “militancy” in the immigrant community that will drive them to the polls against Republicans. Left out of Gutierrez’s warning is the issue of illegal immigrant voting at the center of his argument.
Gutierrez continued by saying that pro-amnesty advocates would not be “deterred” by Judge Hanen’s injunction telling MSNBC’s Jose Diaz Balart that the:
“(M)ilitancy that will be activated throughout the immigrant community in terms of voter registration, voter participation and voter anger at the Republican Party… I think you are going to see it in an unprecedented manner.”
“You may think you won today, but your victory is going to be short-lived, and November 2016 is coming right around the corner–and this will come back to haunt you,”
Gutierrez also directed his wrath against Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) who is leading the fight against Obama’s Executive Amnesty. Gov. Greg Abbott told CBS’s “Face the Nation” with Bob Schieffer that:
“Already this calendar year, since January 1, we have had more than 20,000 people come across the border, apprehended, unauthorized. And so we have an ongoing problem on the border that Congress must step up and solve.”
In a separate report published in Breitbart News at the time the federal court injunction against the implementation of Obama’s Executive Amnesty was signed, then Attorney General Abbott said:
“President Obama abdicated his responsibility to uphold the United States Constitution when he attempted to circumvent the laws passed by Congress via executive fiat, and Judge Hanen’s decision rightly stops the President’s overreach in its tracks. . .”
“We live in a nation governed by a system of checks and balances, and the President’s attempt to by-pass the will of the American people was successfully checked today. The District Court’s ruling is very clear — it prevents the President from implementing the policies in ‘any and all aspects.’ “
In a rebuttal published in The Weekly Standard, President Obama explained his threat to act against ICE officers who failed to follow his executive action with this military analogy. . .
“In the U.S. military, when you get an order, you’re expected to follow it. It doesn’t mean that everybody follows the order. If they don’t, they’ve got a problem. And the same is going to be true with respect to the policies that we’re putting forward”.
President Obama is only half-right. According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Section 16c(1)(c) states:
“A general order or regulation is lawful unless it is contrary to the Constitution, the laws of the United States, or lawful superior orders or for some other reason is beyond the authority of the official issuing it.”
In his injunction against the enforcement of Obama’s Executive Amnesty order, Judge Hanen affirms exactly that.
