Can someone direct me to a thread covering, or explain in layman's terms, the legality...

[wyldwolf]

...of The President's immigration announcement? Trying to explain to someone that a President doesn't have to go through Congress for everything. Thanks!

[wyldwolf]

1. Found an NPR article

... those policies are the stuff of history books, whether it was Obama's immediate predecessor signing an executive order authorizing warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency following Sept. 11 or, going back decades earlier, President Harry S. Truman's racial integration of the military by executive order. President Abraham Lincoln used his executive power to sign the Emancipation Proclamation while President Thomas Jefferson used his for the Louisiana Purchase. And there were members of Congress who expressed outrage each and every time....

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2012/06/15/155106744/with-dream-order-obama-did-what-presidents-do-act-without-congress

[AnotherMcIntosh]

6. false equivalencies

[wyldwolf]

11. Really? Where?

I mean, seriously, I know the term "false equivalencies" is a cool thing for progressives to say these days but it does have a meaning and you've not demonstrated how that applies.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

2. Good question!

If Reagan had done this with his "one-time amnesty" instead of going through Congress, wouldn't we be all over him?

Why would anyone consider this to be a "liberal" or "progressive" issue?

[RobertEarl]

3. No

A liberal or progressive stance would be that these people's rights should have never been legislated away.

Doing the right thing is always considered progressive.

[wyldwolf]

4. well, the point of my question wasn't "is it legal?" but "why is it legal?"

And it is - by executive order. And the executive branch, being the law-enforcement branch of the government, can choose how to enforce laws or to not enforce them.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

8. The Executive branch is the law-enforcement branch?

If so, how is it that we have openly admitted war criminals who remain free, rich, and happy, and not be prosecuted? Maybe we don't have any war criminals?

How is it that no banksters have been prosecuted? Is it that we don't have any banksters?

[wyldwolf]

9. Yes

... and because the executive has chosen not to prosecute.

[kelly1mm]

12. So, could the executive choose not to prosecute violations of the ACA? How about violations

of the voting rights act? Title X? Civil rights act? Clean Water Act? I am sure some future Republican President will thank you for being fine and dandy with ignoring laws past by congress in his/her discretion.

[wyldwolf]

13. Yes

Doesn't mean they'd get away with it but it would depend on how Congress reacts.

Yeah, I know. Political reality often sux. You don't have to like it to know it's true, though.

The Obama administration chose not to defend/enforce DOMA back in February.

[EFerrari]

5. Because human rights are a progressive issue?

[MadHound]

7. He is issuing an executive order directing an Executive Branch agency,

In this case, Homeland Security, to change its policy. This would be the same as any presidential executive order.

[ProSense]

10. Don't know if

this helps, but here are some good read:

ACLU Welcomes Action and Calls on Congress to Pass the DREAM Act

WASHINGTON — This morning the Obama administration announced that it will stop deporting and begin giving work permits to young adults who came to the U.S. as children (often referred to as "Dreamers&quot .

Through well-established executive authority, the administration has temporarily spared youth educated in America’s schools from expulsion from the United States. Those who will be eligible for “deferred action” for two years (subject to renewal) include people who arrived in the U.S. before age 16, are younger than 30, have been in the U.S. for at least five continuous years, graduated from a U.S. high school or earned a GED or served in the U.S. armed forces, and “have not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.”

- more -

http://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/obama-administration-gives-lifeline-dreamers

A Lifeline for DREAMers
http://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/lifeline-dreamers

Utah’s GOP attorney general: Obama immigration move totally within his power
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/utahs-gop-attorney-general-obama-immigration-move-totally-within-his-power/2012/06/15/gJQAcwWUfV_blog.html