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18 Jan, 6 tweets, 2 min read
It's no surprise that Joe Biden plans to begin his administration with a flurry of executive actions—that's what presidents tend to do as leaders of the Executive Branch.

"Executive action" isn't the same as "executive fiat" or "executive overreach."
1/
In the end, "executive overreach" is whatever the courts find to be outside the authorities granted to the Executive Branch by Congress or the Constitution.

But in the beginning, as a policy takes shape, you could say that executive overreach is a state of mind.

2/
Under Obama, executive actions went through layers & layers of scrutiny from gov't lawyers before they were initiated.

It wasn't just fear of losing in court—officials wanted to stay on the lawful side of statute & judicial precedent.

Expect the same from Team Biden.

3/ Image
Under Trump, "lawful executive action" was redefined to mean "whatever we want to do & let's hope 5 Supreme Court justices ultimately agree."

From the very first week, policies flew out the door with minimal-to-zero internal legal scrutiny.

4/
 theguardian.com/us-news/2017/j…
Howls about "executive overreach" will soon pour forth from Joe Biden's opponents. You can set your watch by it.

But the lawyerly policymaking process under Biden will be nothing like the nihilistic power plays under Trump.

5/
(Speaking of lawyerly, here's a rundown of executive orders vs. presidential memoranda vs. regulations vs. all kinds of other stuff commonly lumped together as "executive actions," focusing on immigration policy. Enjoy?)

6/6

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More from @doug_rand

Doug Rand Profile picture
20 Jan
🎉First official details of the immigration bill Joe Biden is sending to Congress today, & the name speaks volumes:

The U.S. Citizenship Act

Let's look at 5 pillars:

*Legalization
*Border
*Humanitarian
*Labor protections
*Legal immigration

1/
 buildbackbetter.gov/press-releases…
Long-overdue naturalization & integration of undocumented Americans:

*Dreamers, TPS holders, & farmworkers eligible for green cards immediately

*Others get status immediately, then green cards 5 years later

*After 3 years with such green cards, eligible for US citizenship

2/ Image
"Smart Border Controls":

*Funding for technology & infrastructure to screen for contraband at ports of entry, process more asylum-seekers, & secure southern border

*Accountability & training for Border Patrol

*Extra efforts to stop drug traffickers & human smugglers

3/
Read 11 tweets
Doug Rand Profile picture
19 Jan
Joe Biden will present Congress with an immigration reform bill on his first day in office—Wednesday!—including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, immediate green cards for DACA & TPS holders, & more...

via @seungminkim:
1/
 washingtonpost.com/politics/biden…
Legal immigration items newly reported:
*Recapturing unused green cards
*Work permits for spouses & children of H-1B workers

Prior promises by candidate Biden:
* No green card caps for STEM PhD grads
* No caps on spouses & children of permanent residents
* No country caps

2/ Image
Lots to anticipate starting on Jan. 20—not only these legislative proposals that Congress will still need to pass, but also a great many new executive actions to start rebuilding our immigration system in the meantime.

3/3
Read 4 tweets
Doug Rand Profile picture
6 Jan
If Dems control the Senate, then the Congressional Review Act (CRA) suddenly snaps into major relevance as a blunt instrument to eliminate Trump-era rules—at least from the past 6 months or so.

The details are complex, but @CRS4Congress has an FAQ!
1/
 fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R…
The CRA lets Congress take a simple majority vote on eliminating most any rule from the past 60 "days of continuous session"—when you include recess days, that ends up being several months.

Here's the @USGAO database of duly delivered rules:
2/
 gao.gov/legal/other-le…
The CRA is a two-way bazooka: It destroys the existing rule *&* in the future prevents the agency from issuing a "new rule that is substantially the same" or reissuing the rule in "substantially the same form."

What does that mean? It's untested!
3/
Read 6 tweets
Doug Rand Profile picture
6 Dec 20
Here's a thoughtful—& therefore damning—analysis of the Trump administration's 11th-hour changes to the civics exam for aspiring US citizens.

Steven Lubet of @NorthwesternLaw susses out some truly fatal flaws beyond those widely reported already.

1/
 politico.com/news/magazine/…
Here's an error worthy of Encyclopedia Brown: The Federalist Papers came *after* the Constitution was written, so this shouldn't be an acceptable answer.

2/
Name 3 "rights of everyone living in the United States"—but don't sweat anything after the 1st & 2nd amendments, like, say, equal protection or due process.

Can you imagine the uproar if a Democratic administration put forward a list of rights & left out the 2nd amendment?

3/
Read 6 tweets
Doug Rand Profile picture
17 Nov 20
🚨DHS just changed the policy manual for @USCIS officers, making it much more difficult & confusing to get a green card (and ultimately US citizenship).

Let's dive into what is changing, & then why this is happening now...

1/
 uscis.gov/news/alerts/us…
Bottom line: USCIS officers are being ordered to exercise their "discretion" to deny a lot more green card applications.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, it's because USCIS made similar moves in July regarding work permit applications:

2/
Today's update begins with some picayune xenophobic edits to the Policy Manual:

* Changing every instance of "foreign national" to "alien"

* Listing "national security & public safety" as more important than "family unity" as a Congressional goal for permanent residency

3/
Read 10 tweets
Doug Rand Profile picture
13 Nov 20
🚨Surprise! The Trump admin just released a new civics test that all aspiring US citizens must pass if applying after Dec 1.

Quoth DHS: "offering a fair test...is of upmost [sic] importance to our agency."

Let's look at what's changing...

1/
uscis.gov/news/news-rele…
Superficially, the 60% threshold for correct answers is the same.

But studying the new 128 (more complicated) questions will be harder than studying the old 100 (more straightforward) questions.

And scoring 12/20 will be harder than scoring 6/10.

2/
 uscis.gov/citizenship-re…
But the new civics test isn't just more difficult for no apparent reason—it also contains straight-up errors.

Q: Who does a Senator represent?

Old test: "All people of the state" [true]

New test: "Citizens of their state" [ideologically extreme & not true!]

3/
Read 9 tweets

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