Speech #1130114320

Their duty is to say no. And sometimes you have to resign your office. Just imagine. this past Sunday2 days agoWhite House adviser Dan Pfieffer repeated the Obama administrations warning of an impending Executive action on immigration. Mr. Pfieffer said this action would come at "the end of the summer." According to repeated and multiple news reports. these Executive actions could provide administrative legal papers and work permits for up to 5 to 6 million immigrants in clear contravention of Federal law. If these actions are taken. we will have effectively opened the borders of America. We are nearly there already. Consider that millions of people come every year to America on visas. Currently. if you overstay a visa. there is no legal consequence today. No one is going to come and get you. No one even clocks if you come in or if you leave. If you get a student visa and drop out of school. or if you come to work on a visa and it expires. or if you just come on a tourist visa and never leave. nobody checks. nobody asks these individuals to leave. The Congressional Budget Office said. in analyzing the Gang of 8 bill that came through the Senate. that as much as 40 percent of the illegality in America today is a result of visa overstays. They also projected that was going to increase in the years to come. If you get past the Border Patrol at the border and somehow get to the interior of this country. you are also allowed to stay under President Obamas policies. which are not to deport anybody unless they have been arrested for a serious crime. maybe even limited to a serious felony. As the Presidents former ICE Director John Sandweg explained. "If you are a runofthemill immigrant here illegally. your odds of getting deported are close to zero." In order to be deported from the interior. you basically have to commit a serious criminal offense. Otherwise. you are mostly free to enter illegally. work illegally. and even collect benefits like the additional child tax credit. The Treasury Department inspector general said that loophole should be eliminated. and we could do so. but Congress and the majority in this Senate have refused to allow us to do so. Chris Crane. the head of the ICE officers associationthat is Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers who do all the work on the interior of the country and help in other areas tootestified before Congress: Most Americans would be surprised to know that immigration agents are regularly prohibited from enforcing the two most fundamental sections of the United States immigration law. According to ICE policy. in most cases immigration agents can no longer arrest persons solely for entering the United States illegally. Additionally. in most cases immigration agents cannot arrest people solely because they have entered the United States with a visa and then overstayed that visa and failed to return to their country. Essentially. only individuals charged or convicted of very serious criminal offenses by other law enforcement agencies may be arrested or charged by ICE agents and officers for illegal entry or overstay. This is a very serious matter. This has not been the policy of America. it is the policy President Obama has directed through his top administrative officials down to the very officers on the street. Furthermore. if you show up at the border and simply turn yourself in. you are often released into the interior of the country. A recent newspaper in New Jersey interviewed a 27yearold illegal immigrant from Honduras. The newspaper wrote that he had "arrived in Freehold Borough 15 days ago from Honduras." The article says he "left behind his parents and 10 brothers and sisters." but "he is hoping his family will join him at some point in the future." Once illegal immigrants have been released into the interior. they frequently do not show up for court hearings. The National Review reports that "in one day at a Los Angeles immigration court last week. Judge Ashley Tabaddor heard the cases of nearly 40 illegal immigrant minors. but none of the children appeared in court. according to the Los Angeles Times." None of them came to appear in court. The article goes on to say: In each case. the illegal immigrant was thought to have settled elsewhere. and the judge reportedly decided not to deport the children in absentia. Instead. the judge who declined to speak with National Review Online. citing Justice Department policy reportedly issued changeofvenue orders in each case. That basically means nothing.