Tom Coburn, Asshole of the Day for November 20, 2014
Tonight President Obama will outline his immigration executive order, which is expected to defer deportation of at least 5 million undocumented immigrants already in the US.
Despite what you may hear the shrieking xenophobes claim about this order, what remains true is this:
As Julia Preston observes: “Congress has provided only enough funding for the administration to carry out about 400,000 deportations each year. Mr. Obama, to the dismay of immigrant-rights advocates, has met that goal.” That is a small fraction of the 11 million undocumented immigrants. The question is: How should the enforcement bureaucracy choose who belongs to that small fraction, and how far can he go in setting down guidelines for determining that?
So Obama can only deport 400K per year because that's all Congress has funded, so no matter what 10.6 million won't get deported this year. So all Obama is doing with this executive order and the one in 2012 is spelling out that of the 400K he can deport, some categories won't be pursued. That's all. And if Congress wants to deport all 11 million, then they should fund that, but they haven't.
But that's not enough for Sen. Tom Coburn, who describes what Obama will announce as a huge overreach of authority sure to be greeted by an uprising of the people:
he accuses Obama of acting like "an autocratic leader that's going to disregard what the Constitution says and make law anyway." He says changes in immigration policy require passage by Congress, not just the president's signature — a charge the White House disputes and on which legal experts disagree.
"Instead of having the rule of law handling in our country today, now we're starting to have the rule of rulers, and that's the total antithesis of what this country was founded on," Coburn says. "Here's how people think: Well, if the law doesn't apply to the president ... then why should it apply to me?"
...
"The country's going to go nuts, because they're going to see it as a move outside the authority of the president, and it's going to be a very serious situation," Coburn said on Capital Download. "You're going to see — hopefully not — but you could see instances of anarchy. ... You could see violence."
Sorry, Senator, but you're wrong. And you could sponsor a bill to fund deporting all 11 million, but you haven't. So please stop acting like Obama deciding that 5 million aren't a priority is the end of freedom in this country.
Look, even Megyn Kelly acknowledges that nothing sinister is happening here, despite what gets shouted on Fox News:
On the November 19 edition of The Kelly File, Kelly acknowledged that the president is not actually pursuing "amnesty," because "amnesty is citizenship and that's not what [Obama] is talking about." Kelly also explained how conservatives purposely misuse the word "amnesty" for political gain: "That's a hot-button term that the right uses to sort of get people upset."
So, for pretending that Obama has the power to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants, when in truth he only has the power to deport 400,000, Tom Coburn is the Asshole of the Day.
It is Tom Coburn's third time as Asshole of the Day. Previous wins were for fundraising on the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy after voting against aid to Sandy victims and asking for aid for Oklahoma tornadoes after voting against aid for hurricane victims.
Full story: USA Today.