Speech #1130124481

I have certainly felt that way many times over the course of my 38 years here. But the right response is to redouble our efforts to get it right. not to try to subvert our constitutional system. The President should heed his own wisdom from as recently as last fall when he said that by broadening immigration enforcement carveouts "then essentially I would be ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally. So that is not an option. . . . What Ive said is there is a path to get this done. and thats through Congress." Even beyond the legal and constitutional problems with the Executive order. the Presidents approach is also bad policy. His Executive order greatly undercuts the chances for lasting immigration reform because it undermines our confidence that the President will live with any compromises we agree to forge through the legislative process. The Executive order is even bad for those who are currently here illegallythose who are supposed to benefit from it. Instead of temporary half measures. they need the certainty that only legislation can provide.