Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) warned President Obama would be “sending us into a constitutional crisis” if he uses an executive order on immigration reform, expected as early as next Friday.
“The President was right when he said on March 28, 2011, ‘with respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed.’ And when he said, on May 10, 2011, ‘sometimes when I talk to immigration advocates, they wish I could just bypass Congress and change the law myself. But that’s not how a democracy works.’ Well, now we know that his belief about ‘how democracy works’ was a ploy. Now he wants to unilaterally rewrite immigration law granting illegal amnesty to millions,” King said in a statement.
“The audacity of this President to think he can completely destroy the Rule of Law with the stroke of a pen is unfathomable to me. It is unconstitutional, it is cynical, and it violates the will of the American people. Our Republic will not stand if we tolerate a President who is set upon the complete destruction of the Rule of Law.”
King said he was calling on his House colleagues “to use the power of the purse to protect our Article I authority.”
“This is about defending our oath to the Constitution too. We cannot allow Barack Obama’s anticipated, unconstitutional act to be implemented, for if it is it will destroy the pillars of American Exceptionalism,” King said. “Come what may – we must always protect the Constitution.”
When pressed by reporters yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said there would be no government shutdowns, even as a response to immigration executive action.
“We will not be shutting the government down or threatening to default on the national debt,” McConnell stressed twice.
“I hope the president will heed the request of people like Senator Angus King, who said he hopes he delays this,” Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said. “I hope he delays it permanently, but at least I hope the President would give us an adequate time to be able to work together to try to begin to build a bipartisan consensus on repairing our broken immigration system.”
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) stressed this week that impeachment isn’t being considered by House leadership as a response to Obama.
“You know, no impeachment legislation is pending. None has been proposed. I know of no one who favors that as a course, you know, that’s in any leadership position,” Cole told MSNBC.
“So, again, I think this is a Democratic fantasy. And I certainly don’t see it coming to pass.”
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