Attorney General Nominee Loretta Lynch Defends Administrative Relief

0
2465
Loretta Lyncy
Loretta Lynch was questioned by Senators on Pres. Obama's administrative relief program.

President Barack Obama’s nominee for Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, was questioned today by conservatives on the Senate Judiciary Committee about the legality of administrative relief. New York’s Chuck Schumer criticized the Republicans for turning a confirmation hearing for the Attorney General into a debate over immigration policy. “Now, they can sue and let the courts decide, the confirmation of America’s highest law enforcement official is not the time nor place to vent frustration,” he said.

Lynch told the Senators that she agreed with the president’s policy allowing undocumented immigrants to get right with the law. She said, “I certainly think that people who come to this country in a variety of ways can rehabilitate themselves. I think the citizenship is a privilege that has to be earned.”

Lynch said that while she had no part in the issuance of President Obama’s administrative relief program, she had reviewed the order and the legal analysis it was based on. She testified that she believed the order to be Constitutional and that she could enforce it as it applied to her department. According to Lynch, the program “seemed to be a reasonable way to marshal limited resources.”

Lynch explained the need to direct enforcement away from immigrants who have become part of the community. “The Department of Homeland Security was seeking legal guidance on the most effective way to prioritize the removal of groups of large numbers of individuals given that their resources would not permit removal of everyone who fell within the respective category,” she said.

SHARE
Previous articleBoehner Lawsuit an Admission of Failure
Next articleAnti-Notario Fraud Law Goes Into Effect Today
Patrick Young blogs daily for Long Island Wins. He is the Downstate Advocacy Director of the New York Immigration Coalition and Special Professor of Immigration Law at Hofstra School of Law. He served as the Director of Legal Services and Program at Central American Refugee Center (CARECEN) for three decades before retiring in 2019. Pat is also a student of immigration history and the author of The Immigrants' Civil War.

Warning: A non-numeric value encountered in /home/customer/www/longislandwins.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/Newspaper/includes/wp_booster/td_block.php on line 326

LEAVE A REPLY