Next time the GOP whines about immigration, remind them about the Civil Rights Division in the Bush era Justice Department.
You want to talk about "Prosecutorial Discretion" and Presidents deciding how and when to enforce the law?
When George W. Bush came into office, his administration basically decided to stop prosecuting civil rights cases.
From the Washington Post, in June of 2010:
When Thomas E. Perez took over the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division in October, he found an office that was a shadow of its historic self.
Nearly 70 percent of the lawyers had left between 2003 and 2007, a mass exodus that came during allegations the Bush administration was politicizing hiring. Internal watchdogs concluded that the division's former head had refused to hire lawyers he labeled "commies" and had transferred one for allegedly writing in "ebonics," allegations the official denied. Civil rights groups said the unit had lost its traditional civil rights focus.
So, the Bush administration gutted the division. and as for prosecutions...
Justice officials could not provide overall comparisons with the first 17 months of the Bush administration, but in employment discrimination, for example, the Justice Department under President Obama filed 29 cases through March 20. One case was filed during the same period in the Bush administration.
A 2011 Congressional Investigation found that the Bush-appointed supervisors had refused to allow staff to follow up on cases, had refused to give them permission to coordinate with state authorities during investigations (effectively killing them),
Prosecutions for sex and racial discrimination were cut in half; as were Voting Rights Act enforcement actions.
And the NY Times reported in 2011:
During the Bush years, such criticism was based on anecdotes and incomplete data. But a report released in January by the department’s inspector general, citing internal e-mail and personnel files, confirmed that political appointees sought to hire conservatives and block liberals for career positions, contrary to civil service laws.
Similarly, the new Government Accountability Office report presents comprehensive data that demonstrates a fall-off in certain kinds of civil rights enforcement during the Bush years.
The office also found that case files often had no information explaining why supervisors had decided to close cases, sometimes against the recommendation of career officials. In a companion report, it also found that six years of internal audits about the division’s case-tracking system were missing.
Presidents have always had discretion.