Now that the more than $1 trillion omnibus legislation has been dropped by the House Rules Committee, with passage expected imminently, all eyes turn toward the Obama’s executive action to grant amnesty to 4.5 million illegal immigrants with U.S.-born children.
On December 9, hours before the omnibus bill was introduced, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer predicted the issue would be “resolved with the obvious expedient of funding the government through next year, except for a more short-term extension for homeland security. That way, defunding the executive order could be targeted to just the issue at hand, namely immigration, and would occur when the GOP holds the high ground — control of both houses of Congress.”
Hours later, Krauthammer was proven correct. The omnibus includes a full year’s funding for everything except those departments and agencies that will be responsible for implementing Obama’s amnesty — which will only be funded through February 27.
While Americans for Limited Government would prefer that the continuing resolution be for an even shorter term, presumably the window would provide enough time for the incoming 114th Congress the opportunity to deal with the issue.
A primary concern of those opposed to the amnesty is that once Obama issues millions of work permits, it will be impossible for Congress to get them back. Meaning, barring action right now, early next year may be the only other window of opportunity for Congress to rein in this executive action.
That said, the likelihood remains high that whatever temporary work permits are granted by the Obama administration, recipients will overstay them anyway. Why?
An April 2013 survey of illegal immigrants revealed that 40 percent of the supposed 11 million population here are those who arrived legally but then simply overstayed their visas. Some of those were with work visas who either failed to renew or have expired. Meaning, they had an employer sponsor and no longer do.
Add to that the millions more who never had an employer sponsor or even a visa to begin with.
The crux of the problem is that giving somebody a temporary permit to work does not mean they will find a job or a willing sponsor. Mostly because there are not enough jobs in the first place, and not enough willing employer sponsors to have them working on the books.
Finally, there is no word yet from the Obama administration on how it intends to process these millions of new visas. Where do illegal immigrants sign up for their work permits? Might we suggest Amnesty.gov?
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow he personally intended to “now that [Obama] has done the executive action, to sign up as many people as possible.”
Sounds pretty official. Actually, not really. It sounds half-baked.
Meaning the White House might not yet be prepared to make good on its amnesty promise via a formal process, giving Congress the window it needs to act.
Republican leaders separated the agencies that will administer amnesty out of a full 2015 funding for a reason — to grant that window. Now they must keep their word and take advantage of it and deny funding and prohibit for the processing new green cards to those otherwise unqualified for them under law.
Robert Romano is the senior editor of Americans for Limited Government.
