Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley of Iowa made the following statement after President Barack Obama’s announcement tonight that he will make a series of executive actions thwarting the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Grassley has sent letters questioning the President’s planned executive action, and his actions to enforce current immigration law. Grassley also has asked about policies prioritizing deportation of criminal aliens.
In addition, Grassley gave a speech on the Senate floor last night about the President’s abuse of executive authority and mass amnesty.
Here is Grassley’s statement.
“The President’s executive actions on immigration are the wrong way forward and disrespectful of the law. Such broad, massive legalization is an affront to the Constitution. The President himself has said that he doesn’t have authority, or that he doesn’t prefer this course of action, but yet continues to take this route.
“The President is missing a big opportunity to enact real reform, and instead he’s poisoning the well for future action. Nobody thinks the status quo is okay. But, the President’s actions are only a Band-aid for a real problem; in fact, he’s making it worse. How does Congress move forward when the President has made it clear with tonight’s announcement that he doesn’t want to work with the elected officials in the legislative branch where reform has to happen?
“Unfortunately, if the American people have learned anything about this President, it’s that he has never worked well with Congress-even those in his own party. His disdain for a co-equal branch of government is very evident. It shows in executive actions like this, in regulations that the American people are solidly against, and in his and his Cabinet’s responses to Congress’ constitutional responsibility of oversight.
“I think the president would have been wise to start where we can agree. Let’s work on Trade Promotion Authority or Corporate Tax Reform. If we start with items we can agree on, maybe, just maybe, it would lead to some understanding of what needs to be done on immigration. Once you realize you can work together, you might find out you can solve a much bigger problem like immigration. But, at this point, it looks like he doesn’t even want to try.”
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