Immigration, Law Enforcement and Professor Obama’s Constitutional Responsibilities

After seeing a number of articles commenting on some pretty screwy sounding things being attributed to President Obama following his recent speech on immigration I began to wonder if folks weren’t just getting a little carried away this time. I decided that despite the fact that it might make my eyes bleed I should read the darn thing to see for myself what he said. I did read it and sure enough it made my eyes bleed but I’m all better now so I decided to toss in my two cents worth.

After reading the speech I could see why so many screwy things were being attributed to him. This one was a dozy. Take these two items for example (emphasis added).

To begin with, our borders have been porous for decades. Obviously, the problem is greatest along our Southern border, but it’s not restricted to that part of the country. In fact, because we don’t do a very good job of tracking who comes in and out of the country as visitors, large numbers avoid immigration laws simply by overstaying their visas.

Our task then is to make our national laws actually work -– to shape a system that reflects our values as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants. And that means being honest about the problem, and getting past the false debates that divide the country rather than bring it together.

Article I Section 7 – Congress passes laws, sends them to the President. The President has three options (1) sign the law, (2) veto the law, or (3) not sign the law in which case after 10 days (excluding Sundays) it becomes law as if had been signed in the first place. In the case of the veto, if Congress overrides with 2/3 vote it becomes law despite the President’s objection. That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?

Article II Section 3 – “he (meaning the President) shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed…” Doesn’t sound like rocket science to me.

So the President knows that the laws he “shall” faithfully execute are not being faithfully executed and says it’s been that way for 20 years. Nice try Mr. President but here’s the deal. It’s like it was when I was in the Navy. When you relieve the watch you announce that you have taken responsibility, “This is so and so and I have the watch,” and the officer being relieved salutes smartly and announces “This is so and so and I stand relieved.” Everyone in the watch section now knows who is in charge and who is responsible. Two hours later when the ship runs aground you can’t get away with it was the fault of the guy I relieved. In this case Presidents Clinton and Bush have been relieved so those porous decades are irrelevant. President Obama has the watch and the responsibility to faithfully execute the laws concerning who can and cannot cross our borders according to our laws.

The Constitution says Congress writes laws and once they become law it is the President’s responsibility to faithfully execute them. No where does it say anything that remotely resembles anything about it being the President’s or anyone else’s job is to “make our national laws actually work.” If Congress makes a screwed up law, it is up to Congress to unscrew it. Until that time it is the President’s job to faithfully execute the damn thing (unless the Supreme Court lets him off the hook by finding the law to be unconstitutional). That’s pretty straight forward and there isn’t anything in the President’s job description or the Constitution about shaping systems that reflect our values. Our values are reflected in the Constitution itself along with the Declaration of Independence and the guidance left to us by the Founding Fathers. These don’t need to be shaped. They need to be lived by.

I believe President Obama has something on his resume about having been a professor paid to teach courses that had something to do with U.S. Constitutional law. I’m pretty sure the U.S. Constitution used in whatever courses he taught should have been the same as the one I studied in American Constitutional Law (PolSci 306) some years ago. In fact I just reread the U.S. Constitution a few days ago as part of my personal celebration of July 4. Maybe I missed something but it sure looked like the same one we used in American Constitutional Law.

After admitting that he is failing to faithfully execute our laws he says this (emphasis added):

The result is an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. The overwhelming majority of these men and women are simply seeking a better life for themselves and their children.

I don’t mean to sound callous but so what if they are seeking a better life. So are lots of folks in Ethiopia, Sudan, Cambodia, North Korea, and on and on. The only difference between these 11 million “ILLEGALS” and all of those other folks is a U.S. border fence to be jumped followed by a hop skip and jump through the desert. Reads as if the President is saying it’s OK to break the laws of the U.S. if you are seeking a better life. Excuse me your honor, I know it was wrong that I jumped the border fence and shot a state trooper but geez, I was merely seeking a better life. Is our President saying he doesn’t have to fulfill his Constitutional obligation to faithfully execute our laws in the case of someone seeking a better life?

These cannot possibly be “undocumented” immigrants. Immigrants by definition check in with the authorities at the border. If you check in at the border like the law says and your paperwork is in order you are a documented immigrant. Faithfully executed laws equals “documented” immigrants. Now that’s pretty simple.

It was a long speech, as usual, and this commentary could go on for quite a ways but I’ll close with these two gems.

Now, if the majority of Americans are skeptical of a blanket amnesty, they are also skeptical that it is possible to round up and deport 11 million people. They know it’s not possible. Such an effort would be logistically impossible and wildly expensive.

First – We are not skeptical about blanket amnesty. We are firmly opposed to it.

Second – We don’t know that it is not possible to round up people living here illegally. I could be wrong but the vast majority of them are in a small number of border states aren’t they? One would expect that the local authorities probably already have a pretty good idea where lots of them could be found. It might not be as impossible or expensive as the President suggests. Just a hunch but there’s a good chance that if we start “rounding them up” as he says, a whole bunch of them might take it upon themselves to disappear back to where they came from rather than wait around to be rounded up. So maybe the round up number is something less than 11 million?

Finally, we have to demand responsibility from people living here illegally. They must be required to admit that they broke the law. They should be required to register, pay their taxes, pay a fine, and learn English. They must get right with the law before they can get in line and earn their citizenship

First we have to demand that the President faithfully execute the laws and take action against those living here “illegally” in violation of Federal laws. These people have already demonstrated an unwillingness to take responsibility for their illegal acts. The only thing we need to demand of them is that they produce “documentation” of their right to be here or leave.

Next the President expects us to believe that it would be logistically impossible and wildly expensive to round up the 11 million people that are here illegally. Then he expects us to believe it would be like a walk in the park and inexpensive for his administration to register them, collect taxes from them, collect fines from them, and teach them English? Register them for what; a Pampered Chef party? Teach them English? The U.S, Department of Education (which should not exist in the first place) has been fumbling and stumbling around for years spending billions of dollars; the U.S. high school graduation rate for the years 1995 through 2006 has never reached the not so good 71.18% rate attained in 1990. The Federal government is going to register, tax, fine, and educate 11 million illegal persons more effectively and for less money than a simple, straight forward round up? Pigs are going to be flying to the moon.

Now I may be a dumb old country boy that has been living amongst a bunch of religion and gun clinging yahoos here in Pennsylvania for the past twenty years but it seems to me a quick check of our Founder’s compass before this speech might have been a good idea. I can see how that old Section II Article 3 thing could be a bit of a nuisance but he did relieve the watch.