Speech #1140020899

He had an underling carry out orders to achieve what he wanted done. which is often how he has proceeded with these unlawful activities. I will point out some of them. Beginning with the Morton memos in 2011under the guise of prosecutorial discretion based on limited resourcesthe Administration began to flaunt clearly written provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act. such as section 235. which requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to place illegal aliens into removal proceedings to be deported once they are found. Section 235 requires DHS to do that. they do not have any discretion there. In direct contradiction of clearly written law. the Morton memos generally directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel to refuse to initiate removal proceedings against certain aliens. and to administratively close or terminate such proceedings if they had been initiated. Thus began the opening salvo in the Administrations assault on our immigration laws. This is huge. Officers respond to the Presidents leadership. The following year. June 2012. the Administration created. through Executive fiat. a program that Congress consistently refused to enact into lawthe Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA. This program not only shielded certain illegal aliens from the threat of removal. but it also provided them with work authorization. the ability to travel outside of the United States without fear of being refused reentry through grants of advanced parole. It gave them a Social Security number and a photo ID. By the way. colleagues. this resulted in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers being so concerned at this radical reversal of the laws of the United States that they filed a lawsuit against their supervisors asserting that they were being required to violate the law of the United States rather than being allowed to carry out their sworn duty. which was to enforce the laws of the United States. The judge was sympathetic to the matter. but for technical and legal reasons. concluded that the case would not go forward. but I believe it is still on appeal now. This is remarkable.