Utah’s Republican Attorney General Praises Obama’s Immunity Plan for Illegal Alien Children


(Photo from Telestial State)

By: Rachel Pulaski

While conservatives are slamming Obama for bypassing Congress to grant immunity for certain illegals, Utah’s “conservative” Republican Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff, is praising the President’s actions.  In an interview with the Washington Post, Shurtleff said Obama’s immigration move “is clearly within the President’s power”:

“This is clearly within the president’s power,” Shurtleff said. “I was pleased when the president announced it.”

Shurtleff, a Mitt Romney supporter who is a diehard conservative on many other issues, is perhaps the nation’s most prominent Republican staking out an alternative to the GOP’s hard line on immigration. His support for the president’s policy represents a larger split within the party, between those who see Arizona as a model for the nation and those who want the party to adjust to demographic (and related political) realities with another approach.

Republicans and conservatives have argued either that Obama did this by executive order or more broadly that ignoring Congress represents dictatorial rule by fiat. But Shurtleff rejected that view, noting that this decision was not made via executive order and that the administration has the discretion to decide whom to prosecute.

“Law enforcement makes decisions based on the resources available to them — until Congress acts, we’ll be left with too many people to deport,” Shurtleff said. “The administration is saying, `Here’s a group we could be spending our resources going after, but why? They’re Americans, they see themselves as Americans, they love this country.’”

Shurtleff added that the decision, by allowing children brought  here illegally to go to school and work, could encourage them to stay out of gangs — which he called a “conservative” goal.

In related news, Marco Rubio calls the President’s plan “welcome news”.

 

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