nothin Blumenthal Blasts Judge’s Immigration Ruling | New Haven Independent

Blumenthal Blasts Judge’s Immigration Ruling

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal visited New Haven’s subterranean Emergency Operations Center bunker to sound the alarm” over a looming shutdown of the federal Department of Homeland Security — and to urge the Obama administration to rush to court to overturn a Texas judge’s ruling against its immigration policy.

Those two issues — the DHS shutdown and immigration — intertwined during a press conference Blumenthal held in the EOC Tuesday morning, just as they have become intertwined in Washington D.C.

Blumenthal said he called the press conference to sound the alarm” about a move by the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives to allow funding for DHS lapse at month’s end unless it is accompanied by a defunding of President Obama’s executive order to offer up to five million undocumented immigrations work permits and protection from deportation.

Paul Bass Photo

Nobody should play political games with the Department of Homeland Security, because our nation’s security is too vital for it to depend on that kind of political gamesmanship,” declared Blumenthal, surrounded by top New Haven cops and firefighters and emergency responders. He said DHS pays for millions of dollars” in public safety in the region, from port security cameras to fire trucks to computers used in the EOC during major storms.

He invoked the specter of ISIS (aka ISIL, or the Islamic State”) terrorist group.

Our nation will be very severely endangered from weather disasters, but also from the kinds of extremists that we are now fighting in ISIS across the globe” in the event of a partial government shutdown, Blumenthal declared. So in a sense, without being too dramatic, we should not jeopardize our security at home while we are trying to fight abroad against violent extremists.”

Rick Fontana (pictured), New Haven’s emergency operations chief, said the city received around $5 million in reimbursements for tackling superstorms Irene, Sandy and Nemo.

The best way to address the national debate over immigration policy is to pass a clean” Homeland Security funding bill, then take up separate immigration reform legislation, rather than holding DHS hostage,” Blumenthal argued.

We need to enable those 11 million people, now in the shadows, many in New Haven, to be given a legal status and a path to earn citizenship. We need to enable the Dreamers to have legal status here so they can go to school and build careers. We need for visas to be granted to the highly skilled … and they are protected against abuses,” Blumenthal said.

He spoke a day after a federal judge in Texas placed a temporary halt to Obama’s executive immigration orders that would, starting Wednesday, protect millions of immigrants from deportation. Critics — including 25 states seeking relief — said Obama’s orders trampled state’s rights and exceeded the president’s authority, especially in its scale. The Obama administration said it was acting within its authority to expand existing programs started by his predecessors. Federal Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Texas agreed with the critics in his ruling Monday ordering a stay in carrying out the orders.

Blumenthal Tuesday called the judge’s ruling fundamentally flawed and deeply wrong as a matter of law and fact. The order is based on a presumption that the states have standing legally under this law and that they will be irreparably harmed. Both of those presumptions, it seems to be me, are completely unjustifiable and will be rejected by the Court of Appeals.”

Blumenthal urged the Obama administration to appeal the judge’s ruling immediately.”

Fire cadets lined the walls of the EOC to greet Blumenthal.

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