Lame ducks lead to lame policies
We’re about to enter that legislative haunted house known as the “lame duck,” and in preparation for that, Obama has been floating another possibility for executive amnesty, one that will require a brand-new definition of “social group” as it applies to refugees and asylees (those seeking asylum). Under current law, status as an asylee or refugee is established when one is persecuted because of race, religion, nationality or membership in a “social group.”
Now, in an effort to double down on its previous foray into executive amnesty, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, this administration is positioning itself to define “children” as a social group. Never have people of any age been defined as a “social group” within the context of this law. If children constitute a “social group” under the law, then why can’t people of any age group? If this is permitted to go forward, anyone who is not an American citizen could be absorbed into the definition of refugee or asylee at the whim of the executive branch.
I hate lame duck sessions. I work for a living and try to have a life, and keeping an eye on the ruling class in Washington is especially exhausting when many have nothing left to fear from the electorate. Obama is in that role, and if the Senate does indeed go to Republicans, it’s certain he’ll accelerate efforts to legislate via executive decree — and he’ll not likely shy away from overt redefinitions to further his amnesty agenda, regardless of the magnitude of public opposition.
BOB BURESH, ACWORTH
Quarantines have troubled history
Now fear, and the panic that springs from garbled scientific information, is driving calls for quarantine in the face of Ebola. The Maine nurse is rebelling, a reaction that has a long tradition in this country.
In the United States, quarantines imposed in the 19th and 20th centuries met stiff public resistance. In Indiana, a smallpox outbreak in 1893 turned violent, and several health officials were shot when armed guards tried to quarantine neighborhoods. Plague broke out in San Francisco’s Chinatown district in 1900. Officials imposed a quarantine but were charged with ethnic bias when only Chinese homes and businesses were included. A federal court found that use of quarantine unconstitutional.
Stay tuned. This latest exercise in trading “essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety” is nothing new and may not end well.
DENNIS E. MCGOWAN, SNELLVILLE
