Mike Lee: Obama’s Post-Election Delay Proves Americans Against Executive Amnesty

by Matthew Boyle 6 Sep 2014, 2:28 PM PDT
breitbart

http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver...ce-reuters.jpg

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) told Breitbart News that President Barack Obama’s decision to delay his planned executive amnesty for potentially 8 million illegal aliens past the November midterm elections is proof the American people have roundly rejected his immigration policies.

Lee noted first that the House passed a bill that would block the president from continuing or expanding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty for illegal alien minors—which Obama began in summer 2012 and is largely viewed as the spark that caused the surge of illegal immigration that’s led to the current border crisis.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is currently resisting GOP-wide demands, led by Senate Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), for a clean vote on the House-passed anti-DACA bill. Instead of joining Sessions and most Republicans to demand a vote on that bill, Senate Democrats privately lobbied Obama and the White House to wait until after their elections to enact his executive amnesty so they don’t have to take a stand on the issue.

"Congress is at this very moment in a debate over the issue of expanding the DACA program,” Lee said. “The House passed a bill limiting the program just before Congress left for the August break and it is now the Senate's turn to consider this legislation. By suggesting that he plans to move forward on executive amnesty after the election regardless of what happens in the Senate over the next month, the president is signaling to the country that debate doesn't matter, senators' votes don't matter, and, most alarmingly, the voices of the American people don't matter. It is an outrageous act that threatens the very foundations of our democracy.”

Lee noted that what Obama is planning would hurt Americans and countless more future potential illegal aliens.

"Further, what the president is suggesting is incredibly dangerous,” Lee said. “The DACA program has encouraged hundreds of thousands of people to make a very dangerous journey to this country. His announcement that he plans to expand the program is only going to encourage hundreds of thousands more parents to entrust their children to drug cartels, human smugglers, and murderers to help them make this perilous journey.”

Lee concluded by noting that what President Obama is admitting by waiting until after the election is that he does not have the support of the American people—as they forced the Democratic senators to pressure him to back off this issue for now.

"And finally, the president is conceding that not only does he not have the support of the American people to expand executive amnesty, but that if he were to do it before the election his party would pay a political price,” Lee said. “That is why it is more important than ever for the Senate to debate and vote on this issue before November. The American people have a right to know where their representatives stand.”

A Senate GOP aide from a different office than Mike Lee’s told Breitbart News that the Democrats in the Senate are terrified of the American people.

“They’re [Senate Democrats] running scared from the American people right now,” the aide said. “If they had the courage of their supposed convictions, they would be fighting every day and night to get Sen. Cruz’s bill passed to prevent the unconstitutional action they claim to be opposed to.”

The aide points to a statement by RNC spokeswoman Ruth Guerra that seems to be upset with Obama over the delay not because they disagree with Obama on the policy of executive amnesty but because Obama is not doing amnesty alongside Republicans in Congress.

“It’s sad, but not surprising, that President Obama continues to play politics with such a serious and important issue but for this White House politics seems to dictate everything,” Guerra said. “The President’s empty rhetoric and broken promises are a slap in the face to millions of Hispanics across the country. This is more evidence that Democrats never really wanted to fix our immigration system when Republicans were sitting at the table. Immigration reform will continue to be the President’s biggest failure as long as he keeps playing politics and refuses to work with Republicans.”

Guerra’s statement takes more issue with the effects of Obama’s delay on illegal immigrants than the effects of an Obama amnesty—or a congressionally-passed amnesty like the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” bill, Speaker John Boehner’s immigration “principles” which were written by former Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) aide Becky Tallent, or any other GOP establishment policy—on struggling American workers. The Senate GOP aide who spoke with Breitbart News said Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the RNC, and its chairman Reince Priebus and others should be focused on the disastrous effects of Chamber of Commerce-backed immigration policies on American workers.

“This sickening and cynical strategy by Obama and Reid and Senate Democrats should be relentlessly exposed by Boehner, McCarthy and every Republican on the national ballot all the way to election day and beyond,” the aide said. “I’m mystified why the RNC and all Republican electoral committees have not recognized how badly Obama’s plans would damage the American working class.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...cutive-Amnesty