Stop Obama's Executive Amnesty

Floor Speech

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Mr. HILL. I thank my colleague for yielding. I am pleased to have
this time on the floor to talk about this important issue that faces
our Congress.

On more than 22 occasions, President Obama has told audiences that,
on the advice of his counsel, his attorneys, he could in fact not do
what he has just proposed to do last November of 2014.

He stated that he did not have the statutory authority to defer
deportation of over 5 million people who are in our country illegally,
thereby granting them rights to drivers' licenses, work permits, Social
Security, and health benefits.

For example, in 2013, the President stated that implementing
immigration ``reform'' through executive action was ``difficult to
defend legally'' and ``not an option.'' He has repeatedly told the
American people that he is a President, not a king, not a emperor.

Mr. Speaker, I will place in the Record the 22 times that the
President has uttered these words that say that he does not have the
authority to take executive action on immigration.

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Further, notwithstanding the President's own legal argument to the
contrary, Mr. Obama's supporters argue that he simply is doing what
Presidents Reagan and Bush 41 did. This statement is simply not true.
Instead, President Reagan and Bush responded in a statutorily
acceptable matter to an ambiguity in a specific law and did not seek to
circumvent or prevent enforcement of the law as it was written.

I supported recent House legislative action to defund the President's
executive actions based on the facts above, as well as my view that
Congress must in fact fix our broken immigration system by legislation.

The separation of powers argument here is clear. In article I of the
U.S. Constitution, Congress is granted the enumerated power of setting
uniform law for naturalizing our citizens.

Mr. Obama's approach violates this provision by both exceeding his
constitutional authority as well as his sworn obligation to faithfully
execute the laws as passed by Congress.

While we are all familiar with the Executive's obligation to
faithfully execute, we must focus on the cynical distrust that doing
the opposite causes among our citizens.

James Madison in Federalist 51 discussed the need for each branch of
government to guard against overreach by another. ``When such an
overreach occurs,'' Madison stated, ``ambition must be counteracted by
ambition.'' And clearly, our government works best when each branch
stays within its prescribed boundaries.

Supreme Court Justice Kennedy argued this in a recent separation of
powers case before the court when he said:

Liberty is always at stake when one or more of the branches
seek to transgress the separation of powers.

As a matter of principle, as a matter of our role in Congress, I urge
my colleagues in the Senate to stand up for the proper separation of
powers and assert that Congress alone can debate and enact such
sweeping changes to our immigration system.

Mr. Speaker, Members seeking to reform our broken immigration system
should support our efforts to rein in this tyranny of the Executive.
Only then can Congress work together to craft the proper solutions to
fix our broken system. Only then will Congress come together and insist
on a border that is secure and fully functioning as a cornerstone of
our homeland security.

With a land, sea, and air border that knows who and why people are
entering our beloved Nation, we can then turn our attention to those
many connecting facets of our system: visa overstays; lack of a
balanced, well-staffed, and functioning guest worker program; adequate
welcome and legal openings for those facing persecution; speedy
adjudication for those aliens who are detained; opportunities for
needed workers, professors, and students in our universities; and
finally, a process for handling those among us who remain outside our
legal tax and societal systems.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues in the Senate to stand up for the
first branch and our constitutional prerogative. Take action on our
Homeland Security bill and send it back to the House.

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