“The Congress shall have power … To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization … throughout the United States.” —U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 4

“The biggest problems that we’re facing right now have to do with George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through Congress at all. And that’s what I intend to reverse when I’m president.” —presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008

Obama, the former “constitutional law professor,” has always had contempt for Rule of Law and the separation of powers built into our Constitution, but now that he no longer faces election his utter contempt for any restrictions on his power has been laid bare. He openly subverts the Constitution and smugly dares his feckless Republican opposition to try and stop him, knowing that they rarely will even make the effort, lest they be called racists.

Arguably, this naked power grab by Obama is nowhere more dangerous than in the area of immigration. On the one hand he has largely refused to enforce our immigration laws, allowing thousands upon thousands of illegal aliens to cross our porous border each month, and on the other hand he is facilitating the ability for these illegals to become permanent residents of the United States, with the end goal of turning them into a permanent Democrat voting bloc.

Having already been rebuked by federal Judge Andrew Hanen for the administration’s issuance of more than 100,000 work permits to illegals under an expansion of the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program, which Hanen had issued an injunction against in February, Obama is back at it again. This time, his plan is a more subtle, back-door effort to make sure illegals never get deported and have full access to all of the privileges and benefits of U.S. citizens.

According to a secret White House memo discovered by Ian Smith of The Hill, the USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service) is amending its internal policies to bypass restrictions on I-140 petitions and H1-B visas, opening the floodgates to not only legal resident aliens here on work visas, but to low-skilled laborers here illegally.

The Cliff’s Notes version goes like this: Foreign workers wanting permanent residency in the United States must file an I-140 application, which puts them on the wait list for a green card. When a temporary guest worker gets to the front of the line they are allowed to submit an application to have their official status changed to that of a permanent resident alien. If the application is approved, then the worker receives an EAD (Employment Authorization Document), which is highly coveted because this allows them to work anywhere in the country. This is critical to foreign workers because it allows them to stay in the U.S. even if their temporary work visas expire, and they are no longer tied to a sponsoring employer (H1-B visa holders are sponsored by a specific employer, and can only stay in the U.S. while employed by that company). U.S. tech companies have consistently pushed for the expansion of the H1-B program because it allows them to replace higher wage U.S. citizen employees with lower wage foreigners, and it keeps the foreign workers tied to them in a form of indentured servitude.

Under Obama’s workaround, potentially millions of low-skilled illegal laborers receive a “get out of jail free” card protecting them from deportation, since they are allowed to stay once acquiring the EAD (which requires only a valid ID, and no proof of lawful residency). Additionally, under Obama’s DACA and DAPA programs, the spouses and children of these now quasi-legal illegals would also be protected from deportation and eligible for work permits. The fact that this comes at a time when Obama is also launching a campaign to encourage nearly 10 million immigrants to become naturalized citizens and register to vote, has not gone unnoticed. Nearly all of the targeted immigrants are of Hispanic or Asian origin, which vote heavily Democrat.

It also comes at a time when Americans of all stripes have suffered for nearly a decade under declining wages and high unemployment. Meanwhile, U.S. corporations like Microsoft, Qualcomm and Disney are laying off U.S. workers in favor of foreign H1-B visa workers who cost them far less to employ (Disney even forced laid off workers to train their foreign replacements or lose severance). Conservatives and Republicans should oppose Obama’s latest effort because it tramples on Rule of Law, but even Democrats should oppose it since it will be detrimental to union jobs.

When the workforce participation rate is the lowest it has been since the Carter administration, and the native-born black and Hispanic unemployment rates stay stubbornly in double-digits, it makes absolutely no sense to flood the labor market with more low-cost and/or low-skilled workers who will compete with U.S. citizens for those jobs.

That is unless your goal is not to improve the lives and fortunes of U.S. citizens but to create a permanent Democrat voting bloc.