Obama invents rights for illegals

The left is very good at inventing rights that appear nowhere in the Constituion. These "positive rights" authorize the government to bestow goodies on the public, unlike "negative rights" which tell the government what it cannot do. Ergo, liberals invented the "right" to health insurance, the "right" to marry whoever you want to, and more. Poisitive rights are insidious in that they undermine the balance between liberty and responsibility. Moreover, positive rights chain the individual to the collective,. rather than free the individual from state control as negative rights do.

President Obama invented a new right over Labor Day; the right to immigrate to the US. As the Daily Caller points out, this new "right" supercedes congressional authority in a way the Founders never intended:

President Barack Obama believes that many foreigners have a right to immigrate into the United States, regardless of what Americans prefer, say immigration experts.

The evidence emerged from the president’s mouth on Labor Day, as Obama was urging his supporters to vote in November, despite the struggling economy.

“Cynicism is a bad choice… Hope is what gives young people the strength to march for women’s rights, and worker’s rights, and civil rights, and voting rights, and gay rights and immigration rights,” Obama told union supporters gathered Sept. 1 in Milwaukee, Wisc.

That “immigration rights” phrase “implies that some people have the right to move here,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center of Immigration Studies.

“It is supposed to be Congress [which decides who can immigrate] but what the president seems to be saying is that ‘If migrants themselves decides to immigrate, and if they are here long enough, we’ll let them stay,’” he said.

That number of foreigners who could gain from the idea could be very large.

Roughly 12 million illegals are living in the country, and Obama has backed plans to provide them with an amnesty. More than 130,000 Central Americans have crossed the U.S. border since last October, and have been allowed by Obama to file for Green Cards instead of being immediately repatriated.

His deputies are also using various legal means to offer asylum or Green Cards to new groups of foreigners, including foreigners who have already been.

One of the definitions of sovereignty is the ability to control a nation's borders. Making immigration to the US a choice for foireigners rather than a matter of public policy destroys sovereignty and cheapens citizenship. Bypassing Congress also upsets the delicate balance between the various branches of government established by the Constitution.

Nothing is more destructive of individual liberty than positive rights. And Obama has just invented another one.

 

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