A loophole created by Congress may be a vehicle President Obama can use to drive amnesty for 6 million Mexican illegals without any federal court review.
It’s called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and it was created in 1990 to allow the President “to suspend deportations of (and grant work permits to) illegal aliens from countries where there’s been a natural disaster or civil strife.”
There are currently eleven countries whose illegals are enjoying a TPS amnesty; the list is on the left side of this page. None of those people – not one – will ever be made to return home because his “temporary” amnesty expired. I’m comfortable with such a categorical statement because it’s never happened to anyone – ever.
Essentially, any country which experiences civil unrest or a major natural disaster can be immediately designed for TPS amnesty and illegals (and even tourists who happen to be in the U.S. at the time) become eligible for amnesty and work permits.
CAIR is demanding TPS amnesty for illegal aliens from Yemen. Representative Alan Grayson is urging TPS for Venezuelan illegals. The government of Pakistan requested (but did not receive) TPS for its illegals in the U.S. in 2011, and the Philippines for its illegals in 2013.
The Los Angeles Times demanded last month we grant TPS to “those migrants fleeing the Middle East and Africa via Libya” – which is illogical, since you have to be here to get it, but maybe this administration will simply “reinterpret’ the law to permit grants of TPS to foreigners abroad.
And the nuclear option is Obama granting a TPS amnesty to all 6 million Mexican illegal aliens — which I have no doubt he’d do if he thought he could get away with it politically. (The anti-borders crowd has actually pushed for this; see here and here, for instance.)
Immigration problems related to natural disasters can be handled without granting amnesty and work permits. The President can delay deportations for a fixed amount of time until the situation normalizes. TPS status is a huge loophole which Obama or any future President could drive amnesty through even if they lose in the courts.
