Trump admin extends TPS amnesty and bows to judicial supremacy

Once again, the executive and judicial branches have gotten together to nullify a sovereignty statute and grant indefinite amnesty to illegal aliens while saddling Americans with the cost and citizen children of illegal aliens who wrongly were awarded temporary legal status. We have a government of, by, and for illegal aliens.

Remember when Trump offered Democrats amnesty plus extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in exchange for wall funding? Well, yesterday his DHS secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, agreed to illegally extend this program for free simply because the powers that be in this administration support the amnesty agenda and the stealing of American sovereignty. This is a scam of issuing work permits for primarily illegal aliens who take advantage of a program designed for legal visitors who can’t return home because of a natural disaster. After promising to end it, Trump’s DHS extended TPS for 300,000 nationals of Sudan, El Salvador, Haiti, and Nicaragua. The overwhelming majority are from El Salvador, among them those with proven ties to MS-13. Pursuant to law, TPS should have expired for Sudan in 1997, Nicaragua in 1998, El Salvador in 2001, and Haiti in 2010.

The administration decided to give in to Judge Edward Chen of the Northern District of  California, who illegally ruled that Trump must continue a program over which the judiciary has no control.

This decision is destructive on many levels, both to Trump’s immigration promises and to the growing tyranny of the courts. Trump is giving in to an illegal injunction issued by a single district judge in what is probably one of the worst abuses of power from a court in modern history.

Consider the following:

• TPS is a discretionary act of leniency written into immigration code, not a mandatory In fact, it is only a temporary visa for those who cannot return home because of natural disasters or “other extraordinary and temporary conditions.” To use this program for illegal aliens and 20 years after a natural disaster in some cases is a violation of statute. For a district judge to then mandate that the administration violate statute on something that, even under the right circumstances, is only discretionary is legally unprecedented.
• According to law (INA §244 (b)(1)), TPS may not be designated if the DHS secretary finds that allowing migrants to temporarily stay in the United States is against the national interest or for individuals with criminal convictions. This is solely up to the administration, not the courts.
• Most egregiously, not only is a universal injunction by a district judge unconstitutional, as Clarence Thomas observed, statute explicitly bars the courts from reviewing complaints against termination of TPS. 8 U.S.C. § 1254a(b)(5)(A) states unambiguously, “There is no judicial review of any determination of the [secretary of Homeland Security] with respect to the designation, or termination or extension of a designation, of a foreign state under this subsection.” For a district judge to rule on this case last October is a violation of law. The judge should be removed from office, not legitimized with this decision.
• By far, El Salvador is the home country of most of these bogus TPS claims. It is also the home of MS-13. As Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies has warned, by liberal judges conferring official status on these people, they have ensured that MS-13 gangsters here illegally are not deported. This is a classic example of how, much as with asylum and unaccompanied alien children, the liberal judges and past administrations have interpreted a statute in the exact opposite manner to its intended purpose. TPS, precisely because it’s not an immigration or amnesty program but rather a temporary dwelling, doesn’t require the applicants to show “good moral character.” Yet the Left has turned it into a permanent amnesty program that still, of course, does not require a showing of good character, which makes it much harder to get rid of the bad guys.

This decision of the administration is even more damaging on the judicial front than on the immigration front. It sets a baseline precedent that there is nothing a district judge can do that is out of bounds and that even if judges violate statute, not just on the merits but on their power to even hear the case, their illegitimate rulings will be countenanced as law. Trump is confronted with a challenge no other president has faced with a judiciary literally engaging in civil disobedience against immigration law. It’s understandable why, given the decade-long lionizing of judicial supremacy, he would be reluctant to pick a fight. But if he fails to do so, he will permanently set the baseline of judicial power over immigration. He has no choice but to fight.

As a result of this decision, the baseline is set that jurisdiction-stripping statutes mean nothing.

As a result of this decision, the baseline is set that universal injunctions are the law of the land.

As a result of this decision, the baseline is set that there is no area of immigration law and sovereignty off limits to the courts.

As a result of this decision, the baseline is set that courts can once again use Trump’s political statements against him as means of canceling his lawful powers, in contravention to the majority opinion in Trump v. Hawaii just last year. Judge Edward Chen, in his October ruling, said that Trump’s decision to use his unquestionable authority was “based on animus against non-white, non-European immigrants in violation of Equal Protection guaranteed by the Constitution." Never mind the fact that, around the same time, the administration continued TPS for the country of Somalia.

The other point being missed here by some defenders of the White House is that Trump is destroying any shred of negotiating leverage he has with the Democrats over the wall. Just like he constantly renews DACA, he is now renewing TPS, thus giving Democrats what they want for free. Therefore, they have no incentive to play ball and offer him concessions in return for permanent amnesty when he is already agreeing to de facto indefinite amnesty. When a president blinks the first few times on ending an amnesty of previous administrations, there is not much fear from the Left that it won’t get extended forever.

It’s hard to tell which is worse: this administration’s affinity for amnesty or its ceding of power to the courts. Either way, the American citizen is left holding the bag, paying for the rope for MS-13 to hang us with, while their kids become citizens on our dime and our laws are unilaterally canceled by the unelected branches of government.

The problem in this administration is not the deep state. It’s the shallow state in the White House and in the Cabinet appointed by the president himself. Conservatives remain silent in deference at their own peril.

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