President oversteps his authority

On Nov. 20, President Obama acted with unprecedented executive powers to grant legal status and new protections to as many as 5 million illegal immigrants. Obama arrogantly ignored the contents of a letter d the day before - issued following a Justice Department investigation - that he lacked the authority to act via an executive order regarding illegal immigrants.

Obama sold his executive overreach by claiming that his executive amnesty was not "amnesty" but actually "accountability" for illegal immigrants. Obama's argument was that because Congress hasn't passed legislation giving amnesty to illegal immigrants, he has no choice but to ram it through on his own.

Granted to at least 4 million currently illegal immigrants are work permits, Social Security numbers and protection from deportation.

This flouting of the law and of the Constitution, which designates three branches of government to act as checks and balances, will only encourage yet another wave of illegal immigration.

While it might seem compassionate to offer legal status in America to millions of illegal immigrants, what about the millions of people already in this nation mired in dire poverty? What about the millions who have immigrated here legally as well as those who have been waiting in the queue for years to be admitted?

What about the cost of Obama's amnesty recipients, estimated to be around $2 trillion over the course of their lifetime? With our national debt approaching $18 trillion, paying it back at a rate of $1 billion per day would take nearly 50 years.

On an issue as important as solving the illegal immigration problem so ten years from now the same situation won't exist, it is the responsibility of Congress to act, not the president. Sealing the border before all else should be top priority.

Nancy J. Thorner

Lake Bluff