President Obama will unveil his executive orders tonight, but a leaked White House document suggests that Republicans have until early next year to block implementation of the plan.
“The U.S. government — and specifically USCIS – will not begin accepting applications until early 2015,” says the memo, which was published on Scribd by the National Immigrant Youth Alliance. “While the government is not accepting applications now, if you believe you are eligible for one or more of the initiatives, you can prepare by gathering documents that establish your identity, relationship to a US citizen or lawful permanent resident and show that you have continuously lived in the US for 5 years or more.”
Senator Mike Lee (R., Utah) believes that Congress must intervene before the program is implemented. “It’s kind of like saying I will collect the feathers once they’ve been released into the wind,” he tells NRO in my forthcoming piece. “I don’t regard that as a reasonable possibility and so I think we have to try to stop him from issuing them in the first place.”
Retiring senator Carl Levin (D., Mich.) says that next year’s GOP-controlled Congress could vote to withhold funding for the plan.
“That’s not uncommon that there’s amendments saying ‘none of the funds in this appropriation bill may be spent for’ — fill in the blank,” Levin told NRO on Monday. “That’s not bringing down the government. That’s a fairly traditional, targeted approach to make a policy point.”