Let's all follow along carefully class, because this is a stunner if you're actually bothering to pay attention.
On Wednesday the House of Representatives Voted to Sue The President for using his Executive Authority to do the same thing that President Bush previously did with Medicare Part-D implementation, which was allow the changes mandated by a new law (in this case ObamaCare) to be implemented more slowly.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 225 to 201 on Wednesday to authorize Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) to sue President Barack Obama and others in his administration for failure to fully implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Ironically, all of those Republicans voting for a lawsuit to force faster implementation of the healthcare reform law have repeatedly backed its full repeal.
The administration has delayed the provisions — which requires employers with more than 50 employees to pay a fine if they don’t offer affordable quality coverage — citing complaints from firms that claimed they wouldn’t be ready to meet its requirement by 2014.
The administration claimed justified the delays under the Treasury Department’s “transition relief” authority, which allows the government to grant relief by section 7805(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, and noted President George W. Bush’s administration also cited the authority to delay implementation of laws. “The authority has been used to postpone the application of new legislation on a number of prior occasions across Administrations,”
Then on Thursday Speaker Boehner stated the House couldn't move forward on legislation to address the crisis of refugee children at the border, because President Obama
wouldn't use his Executive Authority to address the situation.
Wednesday Boehner : Obama using Executive Authority is Bad, cuz we say so.
Thursday Boehner : Obama using Executive Authority is Good, unless he doesn't use it when we say so - then it's Bad.
Got that?
Naw, I don't have it either.
So this is what Thursday's now Executive Action Friendly Boehner had to say about the Border Crisis and why Congress couldn't, or shouldn't do anything about it.
“This situation shows the intense concern within our conference – and among the American people – about the need to ensure the security of our borders and the president’s refusal to faithfully execute our laws,” the House Republican leadership press release stated. “There are numerous steps the president can and should be taking right now, without the need for congressional action, to secure our borders and ensure these children are returned swiftly and safely to their countries.”
This ironical-ish hypocrisy has in fact - not gone unnoticed even by John Boehner's
fellow Republicans., while on TeeVee no less.
On MSNBC's The Daily Rundown, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) “Look, you can’t say on the one hand that the president is overreaching by acting without legislative authority and direction and then refuse to give him legislative authority and direction in another area.”
Just like their response to Climate Change, and to Progressive Tax Policy, and to bills which would help produce American Jobs, the GOP seems to live on the
Completion Backwards Principle.
Which essentially works like this: When something goes wrong - first find a way to Blame President Obama for it.
When it comes to the Border Crisis Republicans have decided to Blame Obama tm by claiming that his policy decision to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012 is the reason we now have tens of thousands of them at our Border.
Chairman Goodlatte: “The recent surge of children and teenagers from Central America showing up at our Southern border is an Administration-made disaster and now President Obama is calling in FEMA to mitigate the damage. Word has gotten out around the world about President Obama’s lax immigration enforcement policies and it has encouraged more individuals to come to the United States illegally, many of whom are children from Central America. Illegal border crossing is extremely dangerous and many of these children encounter drug and human traffickers along the way. Enforcement at the border and in the interior of the U.S. is crucial to end these kinds of situations, not another bureaucratic task force. The House Judiciary Committee intends to hold a hearing on this troubling issue in the coming weeks.”
Except that, this view is, what do you call it? A Pot of the ole' Crock.
Because...
In fact, the current process of dealing with unaccompanied children from countries other than Mexico was set by the Bush administration, according to Dara Lind at Vox. Under the law, the Border Patrol agency is required to take in these children, screen and vaccinate them, then turn them over to the Department of Health of Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The ORR assigns children to shelters until the agency can identify sponsors and once children are placed with sponsors, their cases work their way through the immigration court.
So exactly how is President Obama responsible for a policy for handling children that was established by President Bush? Cuz, he's not - that's how.
Earlier this month, Jonathan Ryan, an attorney with the immigration advocacy group RAICES, told ThinkProgress that the Bush administration “changed the treatment of how kids go through immigration court.” Ryan added that the law was a “recognition of the need to protect these kids and at the time, the need was the war that’s pushing kids out of Central America.”
And the fact of the matter is that President Obama
actually has taken Executive Actions to respond to this. Not that he wanted that to be the case.
Obama said that he didn’t want to use administration relief because he preferred to see “permanent fixes” through bipartisan legislation, but criticized House Republicans for failing to “pass a darn bill.” He has ordered Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct the review.
“If House Republicans are really too concerned about me taking too many executive actions, the best solution to that is passing bills,” he explained. “Pass a bill. Solve a problem. Don’t just say no.”
“I’m beginning a new effort to fix as much as I can on my own,” he said. “As a first step, I’m moving available resources to the border. We’re going to refocus our efforts when we can. … I will see what additional actions that my administration can do on our own to fix as much of the immigration system as we can.”
The GOP fostered Perception is that Obama has been "lax on the border", but the facts and the reality are far different. During his Administration
deportations have been dramatically increased.
But deportations of unauthorized immigrants continue at record levels. In 2011 some 392,000 immigrants were removed from the U.S., according to the Department of Homeland Security. Among them, 48% were deported for breaking U.S. laws, such as drug trafficking, driving under the influence and entering the country illegally.
The Obama Administration has deported more immigrants annually than the George W. Bush Administration.
By the end of 2013, just five years into his Administration, President Obama had deported more undocumented immigrants than President Bush did
during his entire eight years.
So "lax border security" can't possibly be why we have a flood of refugees now. And it also can't be the implementation of the DACA because a) that policy only affects children who had already been in the country since 2007, and b) the number of actual applicants to that program has dramatically decreased. since 2012.
By many accounts, the DACA program has been successful in allowing nearly half a million immigrants come out of the shadows. More than 116,000 immigrants applied for the program in October 2012 alone. But the number of monthly potential applicants tapered off and dramatically fell to 17,962 applicants in May 2013.
Among the reasons for the dramatic drop off in DACA applicants, according to studies, are that many of those who already had proof of their U.S. residency since 2007 may have already applied, while those with little documentation to make that case have been reluctant or simply not have education on the program or support services.
A Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program study led by Audrey Singer finds that young immigrants, who have applied in high number are able to provide proof of continuous residency since 2007, more easily than older immigrants who may live independently and may have a more difficult time finding documents for that time period. Younger immigrants may also have better access to immigration advocacy events that help the immigrants fill out paperwork.
Genuine, Real applicants to DACA have dropped off to a trickle because many of those who were eligible have already applied meanwhile overall deportations have increased dramatically and President Obama has done what he can - within the law and his current resources - to allocate more personnel and immigration judges to either place the new refugees with sponsors or else have them sent back home in a humane manner largely consistent with a policy that was
established under President George W. Bush.
And there's a third reason DACA isn't why these kids are coming to America, because this particular batch of refugees has been coming since before the DACA policy was established in 2012, or the stalled Senate bill the policy is based on even existed.
Most children are fleeing extreme violence and a fear of individual safety in Mexico and Central America’s northern triangle of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. And there has been an uptick of these child refugees since 2009, long before either the Senate comprehensive immigration bill or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program (a presidential initiative which grants temporary legal presence to some undocumented immigrants) came into public existence.
So, how exactly did Obama create a retro-active "magnet" three years before he took any Executive Action on the issue at all? Simple: he didn't, because that's just not possible.
Just like with their decision to Sue over perfectly legal Executive Actions on Wednesday, then complain on Thursday they're haven't be enough Executive Actions by Obama on Thursday, with all the above being the case It Simply Does. Not. Make. Sense. that anything Obama has done or said could create a "perception' or be a "magnet" that is drawing thousands of desperate refugee children here now.
They're coming here because they have no where else - safe - to go. America is their last, best, most desperate hope we should treat them humanely and as Jesus would with kindness. But this is how we receive them? With suspicion, fear, and allegations that their carrying lice, scabies and H1N1?
And what is occurring by this administration luring these children into America by the promise of a free pass once they get here, there are children that are suffering and being hurt, being lured here to their detriment," the Texas Republican [Louie Gohmert] opined. "Now, if they get here successfully, that's a different story."
This is not the President's fault. Border enforcement isn't "lax", it's never been tougher or more difficult to cross without being detected, and the fact that these kids
are being detected and detained by the tens of thousands proves that. He's not "luring" anyone anywhere.
These kids have been coming since before Obama took Executive Action on DACA, they couldn't apply for DACA if they even knew what it was, and even if they did know - they probably
wouldn't even bother to try because those those do know aren't even bothering anymore if they can't prove they've been here since 2007.
None of those kids now being detained have been here since 2007, so the DACA is off the table for all of them and even if some of them don't know that - Congress Bloody Well Should.
And, even if the President did decide to end his administrative implementation of DACA - it wouldn't change a thing for the situation these kids in our detention centers are facing.
The President has asked for Congress help to get the resources in place we need, but they have refused instead demanding that law abiding children who were brought to the U.S. through no fault of their own and have been here for 7 years now be summarily kicked out- cuz "scabies".
Congress should do their job, not continually attempt to prevent the President from being able to do his. There are real, human lives at stake, not everything should be equated on a political win/loss sheet.
Vyan