“The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or party.”

John C. Calhouun – Speech on February 13, 1835

President Obama’s November 21st Executive Orders on Immigration were an “in your face” challenge to Republicans who will control both Houses of Congress for the last two years of his presidency, many of whom seem hell-bent on ensuring he fails even when his proposals are both popular with and beneficial for Americans.

Meanwhile, his immigration actions are supported by a majority of the public and make a practical sense.

  • There is no rational way to deport an estimated 11-14 million undocumented aliens.
  • Separating law-abiding parents from their minor children, particularly if either parents or children are US citizens, is an anathema to our American values.
  • Focusing deportations for criminals, national security threats and recent arrivals should be the priority.
  • Increased funding for border patrol agencies is essential, more so than ineffective fences.
  • Providing mechanisms for encouraging and permitting recent graduates of US colleges and universities with STEM degrees to remain and work in the country is a no-brainer.
  • Simplifying the process of obtaining a Green Card replaces an existing, yet inane and unworkable regulation.
  • Missing, however, is an enforceable legal requirement for employee verifications for all private and public entities!

Pursuant to Article I Section 8, Congress has the sole responsibility to make laws, albeit after such legislation is signed by president; while Article II Section 3, requires the President ”take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”. Despite President Obama’s frustration with the failure of Congress to pass immigration legislation, he has no legal authority to take actions contrary to the laws of the land, which his recent Executive Orders clearly do. The President has overstepped his constitutional authority and accordingly and regretfully, those actions must be voided.

Democrats, who largely agree with the president on immigration, should be concerned with precedent rather than partisan rallying around their president. The next imperial president could be a Republican!

While the Senate passed a comprehensive, bipartisan immigration bill, one in which no one got everything they might have wanted; the House was never permitted to vote on that legislation. The roadblock was one man, House Speaker John Boehner …despite the fact it would likely pass!

While Article I Section 5(2) states, “Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings”, nowhere is either body permitted to diminish the equality or voice of any of its members vis-à-vis other members; as doing indirectly runs contrary to the principal of “one man one vote” as first formerly recognized in the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1952 landmark decision in Baker v. Carr.

Yet, that is exactly what House and Senate rules permit. Not only can each party’s leadership effectively dictate how the members of their respective caucuses vote, the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader can, alone and unilaterally, deny members the right to have their bills presented for an up or down vote; thereby, albeit retroactively, potentially disenfranchising the legislative voices of the constituents of minority party Representatives and Senators.

Unfortunately, remedies, which the public should demand for such Executive and Legislative Branch unconstitutional activities are rarely pursued by their elected representatives who swear to “support and defend the Constitution”; fraught with legal minefields, such as “standing”; and can be exceedingly time-consuming and costly.

While there are dramatic partisan and emotional positions on the details of the President’s Executive Orders, the public would do well to heed James Madison’s admonition that, “there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

So, who should bear the ultimate responsibility for inaction on immigration, tax reform and other critical issues in our divided government … the voters and the party system!