Nov. 23, 2014

If President Barack Obama can exercise “prosecutorial discretion” — basically deciding not to enforce the law in certain cases — when it comes to immigration, could later presidents decide not to enforce other laws?

Could, say, a Republican president decide not to enforce tax laws?

That’s the question that ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos asked the president in a Sunday morning interview, and Obama fired back by saying, essentially, there were too many illegal immigrants to enforce immigration law and because tax cheats are richer and less numerous, they couldn’t get a free pass in the future:

The reason that we have to do prosecutorial discretion in immigration is that we know we are not even close to being able to deal with the folks who have been here a long time. The vast majority of folks understand that they need to pay taxes, and when we conduct an audit, for example, we are selecting those folks who are most likely to be cheating. We’re not going after millions and millions of people who everybody knows are here and we’re taking advantage of low wages as they’re mowing lawns or cleaning out bedpans, and looking the other way.

Obama added, “Everybody knows, including Republicans, that we’re not going to deport 11 million people.”

“So you don’t think it’d be legitimate for a future president to make that argument [that tax law should be selectively enforced]?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“With respect to taxes?” Obama said. “Absolutely not.”

Watch the clip below:

(H/T: Mediaite)

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