WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Steve King released the following statement in reaction to the leaked amnesty details this morning:
“This President has been floating the trial balloon on executive amnesty for a long time,” said King. “Today, new details surfaced that the President plans to attempt amnesty as early as next Friday, sending us into a Constitutional crisis.
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.
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.
I am calling on all of my colleagues in the House 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. Come what may – we must always protect the Constitution.”