MSNBC
A Texas Judge has blocked the president’s immigration order.
Does the president have the right to issue executive orders on immigration?
According to HowStuffWorks, “Executive orders have been used by every American president since George Washington to lead the nation through times of war, to respond to natural disasters and economic crises, to encourage or discourage regulation by federal agencies, to promote civil rights, or in the case of the Japanese internment camps, to revoke civil rights.”
According to the New Republic, Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush took executive action on immigration. Reagan and Bush made executive actions to stop the deportation of children and spouses of newly-legalized immigrants. In fact, Bush’s executive action was called the “family fairness” program.
USA Today claims the younger George W. Bush also “…issued a number of small-bore executive orders — to expedite citizenship for immigrants in the military, or to defer deportation for students affected by Hurricane Katrina…”
Talking Points Memo states that the president has ordered fewer executive orders than any president since prior to World War II. TPM states it comes out to less than 0.1 for every day he’s been in office. “FDR, by comparison, was cranking out close to one per day as he faced the Great Depression and World War II.” TPM does state that the simple totals “cannot account for the scope and tangible impact of individual executive orders or incorporate other elements of executive power,” which is understandable.
The question is: what are the grounds for a lawsuit, impeachment, or the claims of lawlessness?
The only possibility is that the executive orders have possibly been too broad in scope.
According to the New York Times, “(m)ost of the major elements of the president’s plan are based on longstanding legal precedents that give the executive branch the right to exercise ‘prosecutorial discretion’ in how it enforces the laws. That was the basis of a 2012 decision to protect from deportation the so-called Dreamers, who came to the United States as young children. The new announcement will be based on a similar legal theory, officials said.” [The New York Times,11/13/14]
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/presidents-most-executive-orders
http://people.howstuffworks.com/executive-order.htm
http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/11/13/right-wing-media-wrong-about-the-legality-of-th/201553
OK, Fine. 