One Year Later: Anniversary of Obama’s Executive Action Approaches



image002On Friday, it will be one year since President Obama announced that he would, by executive fiat, implement a great deal of his immigration agenda that Congress refused to pass by legislation. (See FAIR Legislative Update, Nov. 24, 2014; White House Immigration Action Page) At his orders, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson released twelve memos, outlining the immigration actions DHS planned to implement. (DHS.gov)

During the past year, DHS has been gradually implementing the executive actions announced that day and going further than ever before in rewriting immigration law. The courts have blocked the executive action that drew the most attention, the DAPA program and the extended DACA program. However, the administration has proceeded with most of the others, both through policy memo and through regulation. On Friday, to mark the anniversary, FAIR will release a report summarizing the status of the executive actions, as they have been implemented in their first year. Tune in to fairus.org  at the end of the week to learn more.

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Content written by Federation for American Immigration Reform staff.

2 Comments

  1. avatar

    Today he said: “I didn’t appreciate how weak the presidency is until I became president”.

    He really doesn’t understand the constitution then. The founders put a system into place where the three branches would check each other’s power. It’s telling though that he uses the word “weak” to describe the position. It has limitations, but there is still enormous power. He is commander in chief of all the armed forces, everyone answers to him.

    He can veto bills passed by Congress. Although a 2/3 majority in both houses can overturn that, it rarely happens. He appoints all federal judges and a few are not confirmed, but the big majority are, and their decisions guide the direction of the country for decades. He negotiates treaties. In short this is an extremely powerful position. It’s just not enough for him and his ambition to rule by executive fiat.

    And thanks to Angela Merkel for her invitation to all refugees. There is simply no way to ensure the majority of these people are who they say they are. A lot of them destroy any identification and that way it makes it impossible to check on them and their claims to be refugees. Many are not even Syrian but claim they are. Of course the media continues it’s dishonest portrayal of most of these people as women and children when the fact is that 3/4 are single young men whom we know nothing about? We’re really going to “vet” these people coming from countries in complete chaos?