Speech #1140103386

So the President just decided: "I am going to use my pen and I am going to issue orders to all of the executive departments and agencies that are obliged to enforce the laws of the United States and I am going to tell them to do what the Congress rejected. I am going to execute an amnesty by the signing of my pen that legalizes everyone in the country here today." It is an unbelievable overreach. a matter of tremendous import. and it is an affront to the legislative process. It is an affront to the majority of the American people who want a lawful system of immigrationone that serves their interests. serves the interest of America. the national interest. not some special interest that wants cheaper labor. and not some political interest that is looking for votesbut what is the policy that best serves the American people. That is what this issue is all about. The Supreme Court. by a 4to4 vote. concluded that the injunction should remain. that is. they blocked the President. at least on the portion of the Executive orders that were before the Court. He has done some other things that were not before the Court. and I think would be at risk. too. if properly challenged. but they havent made it to the Court yet. If my colleagues remember. the judge heard the case and issued an injunction. blocking the President from going forward with his own plan for immigration and one that Congress had rejected. Then the United States Court of Appeals ruled that the judge was correct. and now. by a 4to4 vote. the ruling of the Fifth Circuit has been upheld. In November of 2014. the Obama administration went on strike. It just announced: "We are not going to follow the requirements and the laws of the United States with regard to immigration." President Obama said: "I am going to direct my offices to carry out a policy that I think should be the national policy. I am sorry Congress didnt pass it. and the historic law remains in place. but I am going to direct my officers not to do it." That is what he did. In effect. it was a seizing of the enforcement of immigration law in so many key ways. Under the guise of what he called exercising prosecutorial discretion. his orders directed law enforcement officers not to enforce plain law. forcing them to violate their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and his own oath. which is to see that the laws are faithfully executed. In so doing. he effectively eliminated entire sections in the United States Code. Not only did President Obama direct his officers and agents. all of whom are in the executive branch under his supervision as the President of the United Statesthe Chief Executivehe ordered those agencies of the Department of Homeland Security not to follow the plain law. He further decreed that those who came here illegally and had children in the United States would be allowed to stay in the United States and be granted work permits and access to certain Federal benefitspeople who entered the country unlawfully. No wonder Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have such low morale. An objective Federal study that is done every year or periodically evaluates the morale of the Federal officers in the United States found. I think again this year. that the morale of the Department of Homeland Security is the lowest of any Federal agency.