It shouldn't be surprising, but it IS reassuring that a union has stepped forward to try to slow down the Obama Administration's increasingly brazen unilateral decisions to ignore -- and even violate -- immigration laws.
Earlier today, the union posted a petition on its website that challenges the Administration. And it has asked American citizens to sign the petition to back up federal employees who feel like they should enforce the immigration laws passed by Congress.
The union is of employees of the President's own administration -- ICE agents. ICE is the Immigration and Customs Enforcement section of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
ICE AGENTS PROTECT WAGES & STANDARD OF LIVING OF AMERICAN WORKERS
The ability of ICE agents to enforce our immigration laws is the ONLY thing that stands between Americans enjoying their current wages and standard of living or seeing wages deteriorate toward low global averages.
Without those who enforce immigration laws, our nation would be swamped with additional millions of citizens of other countries competing for U.S. jobs and driving all wages toward minimum wage.
With officers of the ICE union willing to publicly take a stand against their bosses in order to protect their ability to protect all the rest of us, I hope hundreds of thousands of Americans will thank them by signing the petition.
PETITION PROVIDES CONCRETE WAY FOR AMERICANS TO PROTEST THE EXECUTIVE AMNESTY THAT STARTED TODAY
I'm sure you are as frustrated as the rest of us to be listening and seeing all the news today about the start of a two-year amnesty for up to 1.8 million under-31 illegal aliens.
Federal immigration law enforcement agents are giving us something productive to do by boldly challenging their bosses in the Administration. Today, they have put up a petition on their website that protests what they consider to be threats of punishment if they don't follow orders to violate immigration laws passed by Congress.
The union's website invites the public to sign the petition and stand behind these courageous immigration agents. Sign their petition. Then ask all your friends to sign it.
Click here to view the petition: http://petitions.iceunion.org/petitions
PUNISHING ICE AGENTS FOR ENFORCING IMMIGRATION LAWS
The petition is addressed to ICE Director John Morton.
He is the author of the infamous Morton Memo of a year ago that provided the framework for the Department of Homeland Security's actions beginning today in accepting applications for the mini-DREAM amnesty.
The Morton Memo broadened the concept of prosecutorial discretion to the point that huge classes of illegal aliens could be exempted by the Administration from having to obey immigration laws.
But ICE agents are finding that the Administration's new rules actually don't give them much discretion at all.
The Administration's supposed prosecutorial discretion is in fact the absolute loss of discretion by ICE agents to do anything except ignore the law.
The ICE union website states:
Reports are now emerging of ICE agents using their prosecutorial discretion, but then being punished if they determine an illegal alien should be put in deportation proceedings.
"A veteran ICE agent recently arrested an illegal alien who had 10 traffic violations. The ICE agent determined, in his discretion, the alien did not fit within the outline of the Morton memo or the Executive DREAM Order and initiated deportation proceedings.
"The agent's supervisors overruled him and ordered him to release the illegal alien.
"As a result of attempting to do his job, the agent in question is now facing a three-day suspension. If suspended now, this military veteran and eighteen year federal law enforcement officer will be fired and lose all retirement benefits earned if he attempts to exercise prosecutorial discretion again in the future.
Already, thousands of Americans tonight have signed the petition and are circulating it among friends and colleagues. I hope I can say tens of thousands by tomorrow night -- and perhaps hundred of thousands by next week. The ICE agents deserve that kind of public support if they are willing to take these kinds of risks to stand up for protecting all of us.
ROY BECK is Founder & CEO of NumbersUSA