Trump’s Job Is to Enforce Congress’s Immigration Laws, Not Make Up His Own

‘The Court without exception has sustained Congress’s plenary power to make rules for the admission of aliens and to exclude those who possess those characteristics which Congress has forbidden.” So said the Supreme Court in Kleindienst v. Mandel (1972). The justices cited a number of the Court’s precedents for this proposition, and leaned heavily on Justice John Marshall Harlan’s explication from the previous century in Lem Moon Sing v. United States (1895):

The president does not make immigration law, Congress does.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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‘The Court without exception has sustained Congress’s plenary power to make rules for the admission of aliens and to exclude those who possess those characteristics which Congress has forbidden.” So said the Supreme Court in Kleindienst v. Mandel (1972). The justices cited a number of the Court’s precedents for this proposition, and leaned heavily on Justice John Marshall Harlan’s explication from the previous century in Lem Moon Sing v. United States (1895):

The president does not make immigration law, Congress does.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.