Senators Ask Napolitano To Explain Backdoor Amnesty Plan

Members of the U.S. Senate committee that oversees immigration are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to answer questions about her agency’s “backdoor amnesty” plan for illegal aliens as well as its selective enforcement of existing laws.

Documented in a Homeland Security memorandum (Administrative Alternatives to Comprehensive Immigration Reform), the backup plan aims to legalize undocumented immigrants in case Congress doesn’t pass legislation to do it. High-ranking officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) are working to enact their own “meaningful immigration reform absent legislative action.”

The plan calls for “relief” to “reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without proper authorization” in the absence of congressional action on immigration reform. The agency “can extend benefits and/or protections” to many illegal aliens if federal lawmakers fail to act, according to the Homeland Security document.

This includes “deferred action” delaying deportation indefinitely, granting green cards, allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S. indefinitely while they seek legal status (known as “parole in place”) and expanding the definition of “extreme hardships” so any illegal alien could meet the criteria and remain in the country.

Federal lawmakers have previously asked Napolitano to explain her agency’s covert amnesty agenda to no avail. This week they demanded answers in writing and expressed “growing concern” about the Department of Homeland Security’s execution of existing immigration laws.

In a letter to Napolitano, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over immigration and naturalization matters, ask that she meet with them to explain a series of agency memos that propose to grant illegal immigrants benefits and relief barred by federal law. It is increasingly clear that the administration is “dramatically narrowing its efforts to remove whole classes of illegal immigrants,” the letter says.

It also points out the agency’s recently enacted policies of not deporting hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant students and undocumented aliens discovered during the course of a traffic stop. The legislators ask Napolitnao to immediately explain to Congress her agency’s “administrative” methods for “immigration reform”, pointing out that the American people deserve to know.