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Over 230 Legal Experts, Law Enforcement Officials, Public Leaders Sign Letter in Support of Executive Action

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For the third day in a row, Senate Republicans today pushed for a vote on an anti-immigrant DHS funding bill that would lead to mass deportations for DREAMers and immigrant parents.  They’re playing with yet another government shutdown in an effort to ‘fight back’ against ‘constitutional overreach.’

Except that President Obama’s executive action program — the thing they oppose — is something that’s been used dozens of times, by every president since Eisenhower.  It’s been ratified by the Supreme Court.  More than 30 US Mayors have signed an amicus brief supporting executive action.  So have twelve states and a plethora of police chiefs.  As Pema Levy pointed out at Mother Jones the other day, if executive action is as bad for America as Republicans claim, why are police officers all for it?

This week, over 230 academics and public officials have released another letter supporting executive action.  They include constitutional law scholars, immigration legal experts, former heads of INS and USCIS, law enforcement officers, mayors, and state attorneys general.

As they write in their letter:

For the last half century, presidents of both parties have used their authority to set priorities in enforcing our immigration laws. That legal authority has been recognized by the Supreme Court, Congress, the Department of Justice, legal scholars, mayors, and top law enforcement officials from across the nation. The organizations and individuals below have all made clear that the President’s executive actions on immigration fall well within his authority.

View the letter here or below:

The President’s Commonsense Executive Actions on Immigration Are Lawful