U.S. President Barack Obama. UPI/Andrew Harrer/Pool |
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PITTSBURGH, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Pennsylvania declared aspects of President Obama's executive action on immigration unconstitutional Tuesday in the first judicial opinion since the order was signed.
By using executive power to reclassify the migratory situation of almost 5 million undocumented immigrants, Obama "violate[d] the separation of powers provided for in the United States Constitution ... and therefore, is unconstitutional," in the opinion of District Judge Arthur Schwab.
"President Obama's November 20, 2014 Executive Action goes beyond prosecutorial discretion because: (a) it provides for a systematic and rigid process by which a broad group of individuals will be treated differently than others based upon arbitrary classifications, rather than case-by-case examination; and (b) it allows undocumented immigrants, who fall within these broad categories, to obtain substantive rights."
The opinion was issued in regard to Elionardo Juarez-Escobar, a Honduran immigrant facing federal charges for unlawful re-entry into the United States after he was arrested for drunk driving in Pennsylvania. Although anchored on Juarez-Escobar's case, prosecutors had previously argued Juarez-Escobar was excluded from case because he faced criminal charges.
"This policy relates only to civil immigration enforcement status ... [It] has no effect on criminal prosecutions," argue prosecutors.
"Modification of DHS policy to prioritize particular classes of unauthorized aliens in order to allocate resources for civil immigration enforcement does not limit the Department of Justice's prosecutorial decision on the criminal referral in this case."
Schwab's decision spends much of its time not on Juarez-Escobar, but on the executive order itself, with itemized conclusions such as, "Executive action goes beyond prosecutorial discretion," and "Inaction by Congress does not make unconstitutional executive action constitutional."
Despite the strong language, Schwab concedes his opinion is "not dispositive of the constitutionality of his executive action on immigration."
