The Obama administration is hustling to move quickly on contracts for the president’s executive-memo-driven amnesty program even though a federal judge has ordered Washington bureaucrats to stop in their tracks, according to Judicial Watch.
The Washington watchdog organization said Friday it has a source inside the industry of government contracts who said there is “no indication that the court order has impacted, slowed down or modified the procurement in any way.”
“They’re really rushing into it,” the source said.
Judicial Watch cited a government solicitation for companies to provide services for Obama’s plans to process illegal aliens and give them many of the privileges of citizenship.
The deal is immense, Judicial Watch said, with an estimated need for between 200 and 600 contractors.
WND broke the story this week that U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas granted a preliminary injunction that prevents the government from enforcing Obama’s orders. Hanen confirmed WND’s exclusive report that contrary to popular perception, the order to delay deportation was not an executive order by the president. Instead, it was a memorandum issued by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson at Obama’s direction.
The government solicitation describes itself as a “combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice.”
“This announcement constitutes the only solicitation and proposals are being requested. Attached to this combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial services is a request for proposal with proposals due on February 20, 2015. This combined synopsis/solicitation is for records support services in support of deferred action for parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (hereafter referred to as DAPA). Industry is encouraged to review the request for proposal and ask questions by January 30, 2015. USCIS intends to award a contract from this solicitation in March 2015 in order to provide the awardee time to hire, train, and process security clearances; and for full performance to commence on May 19, 2015.”
It describes how Obama announced his intent for executive action on deferred action for parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents on Nov. 20, 2014.
And it says the resulting workload “will be driven by the filing of a newly created Form I-821P, Request for Consideration of Deferred Action for a Parent of a U.S. Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident.”
“Requestors will be required to concurrently file with their Form I-821P a Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization and a Form I-765 Worksheet. Requestors may also file for advanced parole using Form I-131, Application for Travel Document. The population of potential requestors who may be considered for deferred action consistent with the guidelines announced by the Secretary is expected to be approximately four million people.”
But it doesn’t reference the judge’s order to stop such actions.
Judicial Watch said that though a federal court “has blocked President Obama’s amnesty order, the administration continues working behind the scenes to quickly award multi-million-dollar contracts to firms that can expeditiously process millions of illegal immigrants, a government source has alerted Judicial Watch.”
“The complex deal is being rushed through at a ‘full-throttle pace’ extremely rare for such a huge venture that’s sure to radically change the current system, according to JW’s source, who has worked for decades as a contract expert at the highest levels of government.
“The pricing spreadsheets are astounding and list tens of thousands of work hours – for tasks such as program management, file operations and maintenance as well as Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) scanning – that will undoubtedly end up costing American taxpayers enormous sums. The contractor that lands this monstrous government deal must also be able to respond on short notice to growth in volume due to urgent events and requirements,” JW reported.
The government documents states that the “growth is more than normal overtime and cannot be completed with overtime.”
Judicial Watch said the administration “appears to have no intention of slowing down while the Justice Department drafts an appeal.”
“JW’s government source confirms that, even after the court ruling, DHS is moving forward with its plan to seal large contracts with companies that will process millions of illegal immigrants as soon as possible,” the report said.
The Texas judge ruled that Obama violated the Administrative Procedures Act in imposing his new laws.
The constitutionality of Obama’s de facto amnesty, however, remains unresolved.
Attorney Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch, who is representing Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio in a case that raised the same issues, says he hopes the ruling will come in his case.
The Arpaio case, filed in Washington earlier, was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who thought the dispute over whether a president can arbitrarily change federal laws was a political matter between branches of government.
The case now is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the government’s arguments are due in about two weeks on an accelerated scheduled imposed by the court.
An analysis of the Texas ruling by David Ingram and Mica Rosenberg published by Reuters noted that it specifically “avoided diving into sweeping constitutional questions or tackling presidential powers head-on.”
“In the near term, the narrow approach allowed [the judge] to issue a temporary injunction barring federal agencies from putting Obama’s plans into place. … [His] ruling turned on the Administrative Procedure Act’s requirement that a proposed rule or regulation appear in the Federal Register so people have a chance to comment.”
In granting the injunction to the 26 states, led by Texas, that brought the lawsuit, the ruling made clear that the DHS memorandum signed by Johnson was unconstitutional.
DHS does not have the authority to defer the deportation of more than 4 million foreigners who entered the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas, the judge said.
“The DHS was not given any ‘discretion by law’ to give 4.3 million removable aliens what the DHS itself labels as ‘legal presence,’” Hanen concluded.
Obama himself has stated repeatedly that he does not have the authority to do what he did.
House Speaker John Boehner has listed online 22 times when Obama has made such statements.
For example, in October 2010, Obama said: “I am president, I am not king. I can’t do these things just by myself. … I’ve got to have some partners to do it. … If Congress has laws on the books that says that people who are here who are not documented have to be deported, then I can exercise some flexibility in terms of where we deploy our resources, to focus on people who are really causing problems as opposed to families who are just trying to work and support themselves. But there’s a limit to the discretion that I can show because I am obliged to execute the law. … I can’t just make the laws up by myself.”
WND also reported earlier when yet another a federal judge in Pennsylvania declared the amnesty unconstitutional.
“President Obama’s unilateral legislative action violates the separation of powers provided for in the United States Constitution as well as the Take Care Clause and, therefore, is unconstitutional,” said U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab.
The judge noted Obama “contended that although legislation is the most appropriate course of action to solve the immigration debate, his executive action was necessary because of Congress’ failure to pass legislation, acceptable to him, in this regard.”
“This proposition is arbitrary and does not negate the requirement that the November 20, 2014, executive action be lawfully within the president’s executive authority,” the judge wrote. “It is not.”
Quoting from a previous precedent, the judge said that in the “framework of our Constitution, the president’s power to see that the laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a lawmaker.”
“The Constitution limits his functions in the lawmaking process to the recommending of laws he thinks wise and the vetoing of laws he thinks bad,” Schwab said.
The judge said Obama’s contention that Congress had not worked in his time frame was largely irrelevant.
The Texas order said: “The United States of America, its departments, agencies, officers, agents and employees and Jeh Johnson, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; R. Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of United States customs and Border Protection; Ronald D. Vitiello, deputy chief of United States Border Patrol, United States Customs and Border Protection; Thomas S. Winkowski, acting director of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Leon Rodriguez, director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services are hereby enjoined from implementing any and all aspects or phases of the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents.”
The outline of plans was “set out in the Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson’s memorandum dated November 20, 2014.”
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