By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
BIRMINGHAM—President Obama has told the Republican controlled U.S. House of Representatives, that either they pass the Senate’s immigration bill increasing the flow of legal immigrants into the country and giving legal status to millions of illegal immigrants, or he will do it himself by Executive Action. The Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice said that they expect President Obama to “Go Big” with his Executive Amnesty and that action could come as early as this week.
The ACIJ said in a statement that action is long overdue and they expect that action to be big and bold. The Alabama Immigrants Group wrote: “Any upcoming announcement of Executive Action by the President is long overdue. If recent reports are correct, President Obama will rely on his clear executive authority to grant temporary protection from deportation to several million hardworking immigrant families, similar to his 2012 deferred action program for childhood arrivals. While exact details of the plan are not available at this point, we expect big, bold action from the President. One thing is clear: the President not only has absolute legal authority to exercise discretion in immigration enforcement priorities, but also the moral imperative to act and protect millions who would have qualified under the bipartisan immigration reform deal that passed the Senate in 2013. The President is acting now, because the House of Representatives failed to allow a vote on the Senate passed measure in the last Congress.”
The ACIJ concluded, “For hardworking Alabama immigrant families, this action can’t come soon enough. From Huntsville to Mobile, local immigrant communities have been organizing and fighting for a solution to our nation’s broken immigration system. While potential action from the President would be a welcome relief, it would only serve as a temporary fix, and could be revoked at any time. Immigrants in Alabama, including our coalition, will not stop fighting until the U.S. Congress passes a common-sense immigration reform bill providing the full rights of citizenship to immigrants who yearn to more fully contribute to our great state and nation.”
While pro-immigration groups urge amnesty, amnesty opponents are lobbying Congress not to pass the Immigration reform legislation and to use the budget continuing resolution to strip funding for executive action.”
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions (R) has been an outspoken opponent of both the Senate Immigration bill and the President’s proposed executive amnesty, which he says in illegal and unconstitutional. “Fundamentally the President has no authority to do this. It is against the law,” Sen. Sessions said recently on Fox News.
The President has been threatening Executive Amnesty for months. It could happen this week or it could be further postponed. Supporters and opponents alike will be waiting on his decision.
