Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Politics, Society

Obama: “I Just Took An Action To Change The Law” On Immigration

Screen Shot 2014-11-26 at 9.27.01 AMThere was an unscripted moment for President Barack Obama yesterday that might make Justice Department lawyers defending the recent unilateral changes to immigration laws a bit uneasy. The President was faced with an understandably annoying problem of hecklers who interrupted his speech demanding an end to deportations of anyone. The President responded with a clearly justified admonishment that they should let him speak, but he added in obvious frustration “What you’re not paying attention to is the fact that I just took an action to change the law.” That is what the Administration lawyers have striven to deny. They are insisting that this was not a change in law (which is a legislative act) but the exercise of discretion allowed under the law.


I have to say that I have always admired how the President handled such hecklers. He stay calm and respectful despite dealing with some pretty rude characters in the past.

President Obama admonished the protesters initially by saying “Don’t just start yelling, young ladies . . . I let you holler . . . You’ve got to listen to me too.” He then said “What you’re not paying attention to is the fact that I just took an action to change the law.”

His other statement was more in line with the legal position of the Administration: “Although I disagree with some of your characterizations, it does not make much sense to yell at me right now, when we are making changes.”

Here is the encounter:

The statement comes after another statement earlier where the President seemed to draw an uncertain line over when he is entitled to act unilaterally and when he is not. The statement came in an excellent interview by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos where President Obama made some strong points. However, Stephanopoulos asked Obama: “How do you respond to the argument, a future president comes in, wants lower taxes. Doesn’t happen. Congress won’t do it — he says I’m not going to prosecute those who don’t pay capital gains tax.” When the President did not address that question, Stephanopoulos pressed again “So you don’t think it’d be legitimate for a future president to make that argument?” The President responded “With respect to taxes? Absolutely not.” Despite the President’s skills in argument, the separation-of-powers question is how that line is drawn from taxes to health care to online gambling to immigration etc.

232 thoughts on “Obama: “I Just Took An Action To Change The Law” On Immigration”

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  4. Paul, you are right, AC could be the answer today’s DC. Shut it off at 6PM and everybody goes home. Lots of rules couldn’t be written due to lack of time, a plus for us!

    I forget who asked Professor Turley about his salary, implying we had a need to know. Professor Turley has no obligation to enlighten you with his earnings. You can’t have mine either.

  7. Well, I did a Thanksgiving based Irish Poem, which I will post on this thread until somebody puts up a T-Day one. You know, with all this immigration stuff, we are likely to see a lot more Engrish. . .sooo, Happy Thanksgiving everybody!:

    All Your Baste Are Belong To Us???
    An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm

    With the status of immigrants murky—
    Translations might get kind of quirky.
    Like this caption dismays,
    One could read it two ways—
    It reads, “Obama: Forgive The Turkey!”

    https://birtherthinktank.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/turkey.jpg

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    Note: The title is a word play on “All Your Base Are Belong To Us!”,
    a famous example of Engrish, about which wiki says:

    Engrish features prominently in Japanese pop culture. Many popular Japanese songs and television-show themes feature disjointed phrases in English amongst the otherwise Japanese lyrics.

    Instances of Engrish due to poor translation were frequently found in many early video games produced in Japan, often due to the creators not having enough (or just not wanting to spend enough) money for a proper translation. One well-known and popular example of Engrish in pop culture is the video game translation of Zero Wing which gave birth to the phenomenon
    All your base are belong to us, which also became an Internet meme.

    On April 1, 2003, in Sturgis, Michigan, seven people aged 17 to 20 placed signs all over town that read: “All your base are belong to us. You have no chance to survive make your time.” They claimed to be playing an April Fool’s joke but most people who saw the signs were unfamiliar with the phrase.
    Many residents were upset that the signs appeared while the U.S. was at war with Iraq and police chief Eugene Alli said the signs could be “a borderline terrorist threat depending on what someone interprets it to mean.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us

    1. squeeky – my favorite phrase as a teacher was “My kung fu is strong” which I usually used as I killed a fly with my bare hands in my classroom. Thanks for the story of All Your Base Belong to Us. Very funny.
      A friend of mine got me a copy of Guardians of the Galaxy in China and as I was watching it I realized that it had been pirated from the movie theater. Periodically you could hear the audience laughing. The English dialogue was there but it also had Mandarin subtitles which were covered by English subtitles that were so bad they clearly had no concept of the English language. It made All Your Base Belongs to Us look positively Shakespearean.
      I think it is a funny movie and will get a better copy of the film, just to make sure. However, it truly was an experience.

  9. God this blog is becoming a show, i feel like same person is posting comments using different handles and referring to the other handle. Guess nothing better to do.

  10. Inga <<< "Have a great Thanksgiving zedalis!"

    Yes, thanks Inga, you too. I hope everyone has a nice holiday

  11. Squeeky Frome,

    If you check, I think you’ll find that the NC number that was found was 145 out of 10000:

    [Winston-Salem Journal, 10/24/14]

    …Of the nearly 10,000 names on the voter rolls, Lawson (State Board Of Elections) initially said, 145 belonged to people with DACA licenses. After another day of investigation, Lawson said, the SBOE pared down the number to 119.

    In addition to the DACA license holders, the other names on the list of nearly 10,000 belong to license holders who were not U.S. citizens when they got a license. They may have been green-card holders, foreign workers or foreign students, for example. Most have become U.S. citizens since getting a license, according to an estimate by elections officials based on a sample of the overall list.

    The state elections board has sampled about 1,600 of the 10,000 names, Lawson said. They cross-checked the names against the Homeland Security database and found that 94 percent of those 1,600 are in fact U.S. citizens, Lawson said.

    While 6%, at 96 voters, is way too high for anyones comfort. I’ll think you’ll agree that if this IS the case in all states it’s a serious problem, any the situation should be corrected. This, however, is a far cry from 5 million legal immigrants being allowed to vote. Nonetheless, it does concern me and I’d support tighter controls over voter registration at the time when obtaining a drivers license.

  12. Squeeky, Fox News is the only channel where one can get real news. Other channels should be sued for treason!!

  13. @Zedalis

    Well, you can read this:

    As more states begin providing illegal immigrants and their children with driver’s licenses and ID cards, officials are concerned some also are registering to vote — some by mistake, and others on purpose.

    The problem came to light recently in North Carolina, which compared its voter rolls against a federal immigration database. The cross-check of 10,000 voters found 1,425 likely non-citizen voters, including 109 illegal immigrants or so-called “Dreamers.” Almost 10 percent registered to vote when getting their driver’s license. But election officials say the problem is nationwide.

    “In terms of a check and balance that would prevent an individual who is a non U.S. citizen from registering to vote, that doesn’t exist. There’s absolutely nothing stopping them,” said Neal Kelley, Orange County registrar of voters and chairman of the California Association of Election Officials.

    The problem, officials say, dates back to the 1993 federal Motor Voter Act, which requires states to offer residents the ability to register to vote when they obtain a driver’s license or ID card. In some states, the driver’s license and voter registration application are on the same form, and the applicant simply signs. In small print, the form says applicants acknowledge they are U.S. citizens. In other states, voter registration is a separate form and applicants check a box. In either case, once signed, the forms are automatically sent to the county or state registrar of voters, and the name is added to voter rolls.

    State DMV officials are not required to authenticate citizenship.

    There is more at the link:

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/11/01/driver-licenses-id-cards-for-illegal-immigrants-causing-voting-concerns/

    Now, think about all these 5+ million green cards, and all the new driver’s licenses. See! This is why you should watch FOX News religiously! Because you will learn stuff that you never see on the MSM.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  14. Have a great Thanksgiving zedalis! rcocean I won’t be here all day tommorow, I hope you won’t miss me too much.

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