{"id":17484,"date":"2018-08-15T13:36:57","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T17:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=17484"},"modified":"2018-12-28T10:09:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T15:09:16","slug":"aclu-loses-grip-on-reality-and-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/08\/15\/aclu-loses-grip-on-reality-and-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"ACLU loses grip on reality \u2013 and the law"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has never been an organization noted for applying sound logic<\/a> to policy problems<\/a>. Nevertheless, it appears to have totally relinquished whatever tenuous hold it may have had on reality. What is the nation\u2019s premier agitator on behalf of illegal aliens and other immigration violators whining about now<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) have been coordinating with their counterparts at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to facilitate the arrest of illegal aliens who have already been ordered deported, have re-entered the country illegally following deportation, or are considered “an egregious criminal alien.”<\/p>\n

That shouldn\u2019t be particularly shocking. USCIS and ICE (and U.S. Customs and Border Protection [CBP]) were once separate divisions within the former Immigration and Naturalization Service. And as part of the Department of Homeland Security, they exercise distinct, but complementary, responsibilities. But, according to the ACLU, ICE is prohibited from removing any aliens who have applied for a \u201cWaiver of Unlawful Presence\u201d and are waiting for USCIS to adjudicate their waiver application.<\/p>\n

The basis for this prohibition is, supposedly, the \u201cProvisional Unlawful Presence Waiver\u201d regulations, enacted under the Obama administration. The ACLU claims that the government created a \u201cpath\u201d for illegal aliens to obtain a green card and, \u201cthe government can’t create that path and then arrest folks for following that path<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

So, the social justice warriors<\/a> at the ACLU have filed a class action suit on behalf of nine illegal aliens, residing in New England. All nine have repeatedly violated U.S. immigration law but still think they\u2019re entitled to a green card. You see, under the warped logic applied by the ACLU, it\u2019s the law-breaking foreigners who are really the victims here.<\/p>\n

But, the ACLU appears to be willfully ignoring<\/a> the fact that the regulations it cites specifically allow<\/em> ICE, or CBP, to reinstate removal, deportation or exclusion orders against aliens who have unlawfully re-entered the country. It also seems to be ignoring the fact that the Obama administration\u2019s regulations were probably totally illegal<\/a>. The Executive Branch doesn\u2019t have the authority to unilaterally overrule Congress\u2019s mandates regarding who is eligible to seek a green card in the United States.<\/p>\n

Given the fundamental flaws<\/a> in the ACLU\u2019s legal arguments, will this case be a slam-dunk for the Trump administration? It\u2019s possible. Despite the Bay State\u2019s reputation as a bastion of pro-illegal alien sentiment, the only lower court judge to get the law right on the Trump \u201ctravel ban\u201d was Federal District Court of Massachusetts Judge Nathaniel Gorton. In a clear succinct ruling, he unapologetically dismissed one of the lawsuits against President Trump.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, for every constitutionalist justice occupying the federal bench in Massachusetts, there\u2019s at least three activist judges<\/a> who see the courts as a supra-legislature, responsible for correcting policies, rather than interpreting and applying the law. Only time will tell whether the ACLU\u2019s war of attrition will succeed in eroding President Trump\u2019s constitutionally sound immigration policies.