Obama Amps Up Illegal Immigration Lawlessness?

Yesterday the United States Supreme Court delivered a ruling on Arizona’s immigration law, aptly described by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) as “a bit of a mixed bag.” Three-out-of-four provisions of the statute known as SB1070 were struck down, but the one requiring police officers to check the status of someone they believe to be in the country illegally was unanimously upheld. As a result, the remaining provision will be sent back to a lower court for further review. It will likely be subject to further challenges. How this ruling will affect suits filed by the administration against similar immigration-related state laws in Alabama, South Carolina and Utah remains unclear at this juncture. Yet the practical effect of the ruling was made clearest by dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia. Referring directly to President Obama’s recent move legalizing key elements of the DREAM Act absent any input from Congress, Scalia made clear that the court’s decision affirmed that states are essentially at the mercy of the president’s executive whims. Seemingly, in the Obama era, the president is entitled to implement policy rejected by the legislature, while also refusing to enforced duly passed laws already on the books.

“The president said at a news conference that the new program is ‘the right thing to do’ in light of Congress’s failure to pass [immigration reform legislation],” Scalia said in a portion of his dissent he summarized from the bench. “Perhaps it is, though Arizona may not think so. But to say, as the Court does, that Arizona contradicts federal law by enforcing applications of the Immigration Act that the president declines to enforce boggles the mind.”

And no sooner had the court ruled, than the administration acted exactly in that regard. Yesterday afternoon the administration announced that it was suspending existing agreements with the Arizona police, and issued a directive telling federal authorities at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to decline many of the calls reporting illegal immigrants that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may get from Arizona police. “We will not be issuing detainers on individuals unless they clearly meet our defined priorities,” one official, speaking on the condition he not be named, told the Washington Times. Furthermore, DHS pulled back on a program known as as 287(g) that allows federal officials to deputize local officials for the purposes of making immigration-related arrests. A DHS official told Fox News the Obama administration has decided those agreements are “not useful.” And not just in Arizona. States that have enacted laws similar to Arizona’s will be getting the same treatment.