e-News 2/20/15

• A “temporary” Victory for the Constitution
• Revealing Comments on the Terrorist Threats Facing America
• Krauthammer: "Crusaders or Appeasers."  
• Recommended Reading: Secret War in Afghanistan
• Listening Tour Continues: three schools, two Rotary Clubs
• Salute: Parsippany’s Jack Gartenberg and Other Iwo Jima Veterans
• Salute: Raritan Borough’s John Basilone, Medal of Honor awardee

A “temporary” Victory for the Constitution

President Obama’s executive actions on immigration are on hold today after a federal court judge in Texas blocked his attempt to rewrite immigration laws.

Judge Andrew Hanen issued a temporary injunction earlier this week preventing implementation of the President’s orders that award quasi-legal status and work permits to some five million illegal immigrants.

Last November, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published memos instructing immigration enforcers to disregard federal laws that require deportation of the undocumented and place strict limits on who may work in the U.S. The White House and DHS claim this "deferred action" is nothing more than routine "prosecutorial discretion." In other words, the President is telling DHS officers that it is ok to disregard the land of the land when it comes to deporting illegal aliens.

I view this situation quite differently. 

Article One, Section 8 of our Constitution specifically gives the Congress, and the Congress alone, the power to draft America’s immigration laws. In fact, the President himself admitted 22 times that he did not have the authority to take the executive actions he took right after the last election.

Judge Hanen apparently agrees.  He wrote: "'The DHS' job is to enforce the laws Congress passes and the President signs (or at least does not veto). It has broad discretion to utilize when it is enforcing a law. Nevertheless, no statute gives the DHS the discretion it is trying to exercise here."

So this issue is about more than immigration reform. In the months ahead, there will be opportunities for this Congress to debate broader border security and immigration measures.  But we must continue to oppose the President’s unconstitutional executive amnesty to preserve the roles delegated to each branch of government by our Founders!

Read Judge Hanen’s order here.

Read a related Wall Street Journal editorial, “Obama’s Immigration Rebuke” here. 

Revealing Comments on the Threat Facing America

The Obama Administration this week staged a long-planned “Anti-Extremism Summit,” in Washington, hosting senior leaders from 60 nations at the White House and the State Department.  While nothing of discernible substance came from the meeting, the President confirmed the suspicions of many people when he declared, “The notion that the West is at war with Islam is an ugly lie.”

Of course, we’re not at war with all of the Islam.  However, I agree with Senator John McCain who responded, “The notion that radical Islam is not at war with the West is a lie.”

If one gets the sense that the Obama Administration is in denial about the threats facing America and our allies today, here’s another quote from a senior Administration official this week. The United States is not "in a time of war," according to Attorney General Eric Holder.  He uttered these words on Tuesday, less than a week after the Obama administration sought new authorization to use military force against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The fact of the matter is that the President created or exacerbated the security situation we are in today by insisting on fulfilling a domestic campaign promise to withdraw from Iraq, irrespective of the political and military situation there in 2011.  The resulting vacuum gave terrorists the opportunity to flourish because they knew he would never send U.S. fighting forces back to reclaim it. And, today, the President appears to be rushing to the exits in Afghanistan, against the advice of his generals.  He continues to deny the assistance that the Ukrainian people need to defend their own homeland and independence from Russian aggression.

President Obama owns these world crises because of his mistakes, attitude and ambivalence about the military.  No Washington ‘summit” can change that fact.

"Crusaders or Appeasers."  Read Charles Krauthammer’s column in the Washington Post here.

Recommended Reading: Secret War in Afghanistan

Read the New York Times Story, “U.S. Is Escalating a Secretive War in Afghanistan, Data From Seized Computer Fuels a Surge in U.S. Raids on Al Qaeda” here.

Listening Tour Continues: three schools, two Rotary Clubs

In addition to visiting students at three schools in different corners of the 11^th Congressional District, I had the opportunity to meet with members of two Rotary Clubs this week.  The major topics of discussion included immigration, the advance of forces from the so-called Islamic State, the Keystone pipeline, Obamacare and taxation.  

Salute: Parsippany’s Jack Gartenberg and Other Iwo Jima Veterans

A sincere thank you to Parsippany’s Kack Gartenberg and all other veterans of World War II’s Pacific campaign as we marked the 70thanniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima this week.  Read Michael Izzo’s story in the Daily Record here.

Salute: Raritan Borough’s John Basilone, Medal of Honor awardee

We remember the courage of Marine Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone who was killed in action seventy years ago today on Iwo Jima. He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for heroism — making him the first and only enlisted Marine to receive the Medal of Honor, as well as the Navy Cross, during World War II.