Speech #CREC-2017-02-07-pt1-PgH1064_t1

And I defined it then. I said: No, whatever the penalty is on the books when the crime is committed, if you waive that penalty, you have provided amnesty for a class of people. So the more precise definition of amnesty, to grant amnesty, is to pardon immigration lawbreakers and reward them with the objective of their violation or their crime, as the case may be--pardon immigration lawbreakers and reward them with the objective of their crime. What is this proposal with DACA and DAPA that President Obama so unconstitutionally advanced forward? It is just that. It is the most blatant form of amnesty for the largest classes of people that has ever been created in the history of the United States of America. Of course, we only have to look back to 1986 to find the first amnesty, and then there have been the six or so subsequent amnesties that I have mentioned. But Barack Obama, constitutional scholar, at least as high a standing as Mr. Panetta from California who spoke here on the floor a little bit ago, but Barack Obama, constitutional scholar, 22 times on videotape, in different speeches in various places around the country, said to America that he didn't have the constitutional authority to waive the application of the immigration law against people who claim that they came to America before their 18th birthday and presumably were brought in by their parents. If you look at the DACA language that has been advanced here in the House--or let's go across the rotunda to the Senate and look at Dick Durbin's language there. It is, if you have come into America before your 18th birthday, for any purpose whatsoever, then you get amnesty. And some of those people now, according to the older drafts of the bill, would be 38 years old, getting amnesty to stay in the United States of America at age 38. People believe that that is the humane thing to do, to reward them with the objective of their crime. Now, they could have carried a backpack of marijuana into the United States the day before their 18th birthday--I have been telling the truth about pretty much all of that, except they are supposed to not commit any other crimes--and they would be granted this level of amnesty under DACA. The President's DACA acronym stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. So that policy that he advanced, after Barack Obama, 22 times, told us he didn't have the constitutional authority, he was right. Just a couple of weeks before he issued this DACA policy, he stood over here at a high school in Washington, D.C., and explained to them that he didn't have the authority. He said: Congress passes the laws; I, in the executive branch, enforce the laws; and the courts interpret the laws. Pretty simple. That is a nice, concise description of the balance of powers that we have in this country. But he said he didn't have the authority because he can't write law. Two weeks later, the President announces the policy to grant work permits and Social Security numbers to illegal aliens that are in the United States who assert that they came in before their 18th birthday. So he created an entire class of people. I read carefully through the Morton memos.