White House spokesman Josh Earnest appeared skeptical Wednesday that there would be a way Hillary Clinton could go further than President Barack Obama has on immigration reform using executive action — despite her vow to do just that.
"I will fight for comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for you and for families across our country," Clinton said at a Las Vegas high school Tuesday.
"I will fight to stop partisan attacks on the executive actions that would put Dreamers ... at risk of deportation," adding "if Congress refuses to act, as president I will do everything possible under the law to go even further."
Good luck with that, Earnest suggested.
"There may be a legal explanation that they have that you should ask them about," Earnest said in response to repeated questions about the legality of Clinton's claim,
Politico reports.
"The president was determined to use as much authority as he could" when he announced his executive actions in November, he added.
But Politico notes a legal opinion underlying Obama’s November order specifically ruled out a move such as Clinton's proposal.
"As it has been described to us, the proposed deferred action program for parents of DACA recipients would not be a permissible exercise of enforcement discretion," the Office of Legal Counsel’s Karl Thompson wrote, Politico notes.
The
courts are still weighing whether Obama has already gone too far, and whether to let the administration proceed with giving some immigrants a quasi-legal status ahead of arguments over whether the president's efforts are actually within his authority.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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