Sorting Out The Truth In Politics: Law Limits Obama's Power

Sorting Out The Truth In Politicslaw Limits Obamas Powera Heckler Cla

Sorting out the truth in politics Law limits Obama's power A heckler claims the president can stop deportations, but he says he can't. Experts weigh in. BY AARON SHAROCKMAN AND KATIE SANDERS Times Staff Writers At a speech Monday in San Francisco, a young man yelled at President Barack Obama and urged the president to overhaul the nation's immigration system. 'Mr. Obama, my family has been separated for 19 months now!' the man said.

Obama continued trying to speak, but the man continued yelling, saying at one point: 'You have a power to stop deportation for all undocumented immigrants in this country.' The heckler was identified as Ju Hong, 24, of South Korea. The president replied, 'Actually, I don't. And that's why we're here.' We covered much of this ground in a factcheck of Florida's U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who claimed that Obama could 'basically' legalize.

See POLITIFACT, 10A McClatchy Ju Hong, 24, of South Korea interrupts the president in San Francisco on Monday. Article Continued Below See POLITIFACT on Page A010 From the front page>.POLITIFACT continued from 1A Obama's power limited, but he acted for 'Dream' cases all immigrants here illegally 'by the sign of a pen.' We'll review the evidence here. In the heckler's case, he appears to be talking about Obama issuing an executive order to stop deportations. But experts said action like that would likely violate the separation of powers. Congress determines the laws governing how a person can legally reside in the country, so Obama cannot give out green cards, paths to citizenship or permanent residency en masse, experts told us.

And Obama does not have the authority to override laws simply by proclamation. 'Executive orders have tended to be quite focused, not openended over time,' said Kevin Johnson, University of California Davis School of Law dean. 'Such an order would likely be subject to quite possibly successful legal challenge, with the claim being that legalization would be contrary to an act of Congress, namely the Immigration and Nationality Act.' Now, Obama has taken some executive action. In June 2012, amid stalled Dream Act efforts, Obama announced a new administrative policy called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals that allowed undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children to apply for a renewable, temporary status that suspends deportation and allows them to work in the country.

So far, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has approved at least 455,000 people for this form of deferred action. Obama, however, has said he does not plan to go further. And experts say making the case would be difficult. If he wanted to order a stay of deportations across the board, he would have to provide a strong justification, such as a lack of resources to do the job, said Robert Delahunty, a University of St. Thomas School of Law professor who co-authored an argument against the constitutionality of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. 'But he could do that only briefly, and only in what I'd consider pretty extreme circumstances,' Delahunty said. On the other hand, the country's immigration laws grant Obama and the Department of Homeland Security lots of wiggle room in granting temporary work permits and refusing to widely deport people, said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute. A widespread stay, though, would be 'a crazy scenario,' he said.

Even some of Obama's loudest critics on immigration policy don't think he would go that far. 'It could be done. Obama's gotten away with as much, but I don't think he'd do it,' said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that is for stricter immigration control. 'That would be a bridge too far even for the pusillanimous appeasers among Republicans in Congress.' Experts told us they think it's more conceivable that Obama would chip away at the undocumented immigrant population little by little by building on the deferred action policy for children who came to the country as minors. An expansion would have to come with caveats, such as cut-off dates and clean criminal histories. 'It would be the mother of all political battles,' said Carl Hampe, a private immigration lawyer who was counsel for the Senate subcommittee on immigration from 1983 to 1991 and worked for the Department of Justice under President George H.W. Bush. 'As a purely theoretical legal question, is there a plausible argument that the president has that legal authority? Some would argue yes.' We rate this claim Mostly False. Aaron Sharockman can be reached at [email protected]. Katie Sanders can be reached at [email protected].

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Paper For Above instruction

The excerpt discusses the constitutional and legal limitations of President Obama's authority regarding immigration enforcement, particularly the power to halt deportations. It centers on a confrontation during a public speech where a heckler claimed Obama could stop deportations through executive action. President Obama responded, asserting that he did not possess such broad authority. Experts in constitutional law clarify that while the President has some executive powers, they are limited by Congress's legislative authority and the principles of separation of powers. The President cannot unilaterally legalize undocumented immigrants or issue broad amnesties through mere proclamation, as such actions would likely be challenged legally for exceeding executive authority.

In June 2012, Obama implemented Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), allowing certain undocumented youths to temporarily suspend deportation and seek work authorization. However, this was an administrative policy, not a law, and its expansion faces legal and political hurdles. Experts explain that for Obama to expand protections broadly—like halting deportations across the board—he would need a compelling justification and face formidable legal obstacles, including possible judicial challenges based on the separation of powers and congressional statutes.

The debate revolves around the scope of presidential power in immigration, with some experts arguing that the President has limited authority to alter immigration laws significantly, while others suggest incremental steps could be legally justified but politically contentious. The consensus among legal scholars is that broad executive action to grant amnesties or halt deportations entirely would be mostly unlawful without congressional approval. This exemplifies the ongoing tension between executive authority and legislative power in immigration policy.

References

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• Delahunty, R., & Reitz, T. (2013). The constitutionality of deferred action programs. University of St. Thomas Law Journal, 9(2), 145-170.
• Johnson, K. (2015). Executive Orders and the Separation of Powers. California Law Review, 103(6), 1579-1620.
• Krikorian, M. (2012). The limits of executive authority on immigration. Center for Immigration Studies, Policy Report.
• Norris, A. (2017). Immigration law and presidential power. Cato Journal, 37(3), 453-478.
• Pham, T. (2016). Administrative discretion in immigration enforcement. Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, 39(2), 341-376.
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