Posted on 11/23/2014 11:32:13 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
As Republicans challenge the legality of President Obama's unilateral action on immigration, Democrats are firing back with a challenge of their own.
"It is clear that they can complain, they can threaten, they can talk about lawsuits, cutting off funding, shutting down the government, in the extreme, even impeachment. But the real question is: Can they govern? Can they govern?" asked Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday.
The GOP is weighing their options to undo the president's moves - "a bit of a threat to our democracy," as House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said in a separate interview. But Democrats say their real focus should be on passing their own legislation, something they have been urging Republicans to do since the Senate passed a bipartisan immigration reform bill in 2013.
"They have 180 days, starting January 1st, before the first person applies for a work permit under the president's executive authority. What I'd say to them, roll up your sleeves," said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, who sparred with Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, in another interview on the topic on "Face the Nation." "You were sent to Washington to govern; you have a majority in the Senate, you have a majority in the House, and I am ready to sit down with my colleague and fix the problems that America is confronting."
But Gutierrez, one of the most ardent and prominent advocates for immigration reform in Congress, seemed to doubt it will happen. He said that when House Democrats and Republicans were trying to craft an immigration bill, Democrats didn't walk away even as the GOP sought to exclude gay families from the bill's provisions, leave out a path to citizenship, and break up reform into several smaller bills.
He said his GOP friends "mix things up" about the story of immigration reform in Congress this session.
Republican lawmakers, for their part, say the GOP can pass immigration legislation - but they need to stop the president first.
"Number one, I think we should censure the president of the United States, I think it's unfortunate that he did this, I think we need to lay out clearly why this is unlawful; I think we need to pass a funding bill that separates homeland security from that funding bill," said Labrador, adding that the executive action should have to go through a public comment period just like new regulations that are written by the administration.
"Finally, and I think this is the most important part: we can't take the bait from the Democrats," Labrador continued. "We can't say we're not going to do immigration reform. We need to tell the American people what we're for, and we need to show them the step-by-step approach that we have been doing in the House."
Labrador said he asked the GOP leadership to start passing legislation, such as a border security bill, two weeks ago.
"I think we're going to start doing things," he said. "I think we're going to pass legislation. But it's not going to be the legislation that the president is asking for. We have rejected the legislation the president has been asking for."
McCaul, who also said it's "incumbent upon Republicans to come up with our own agenda," said it would likely happen when the new Congress is seated in January.
"With the lame duck, we have to figure out how we're going to keep the government open and not shut it down, and at the same time, deal with this executive action, which I think overwhelmingly, the American people are rejecting because of the way it was done," he said. "But I want to make one thing very clear: We are not going to shut the government down, but we are going to shut down the president and his actions as it pertains to granting amnesty to five million people."
The question that remains to be answered is whether the large Republican conference in the House can stand in unison behind any legislation. McCaul said that members will be more inclined to reform the legal system once they have "more confidence" that a border security bill is signed into law.
There's also a question of Democratic unity: Some Democratic lawmakers have already spoken out against the president's executive action, and many Democratic senators who were up for re-election had started distancing themselves from the president long before the 2014 midterm elections.
"That's not unusual in American politics," Durbin said. "But I believe that there is an overwhelming majority within the Senate Democratic Caucus for what the president is doing. We stood up on a bipartisan basis and created a good bill to deal with immigration. We know now that the House has that same responsibility, and I think all Democratic Senators stand behind the president in trying to make this a safer nation, with this accountability, and also, to make certain that those who are working here with a temporary work permit, are going to pay their fair share of taxes."
I suggest they respond with a bill that really strengthens border security.
HA HA frickin' idiot.
Somebody needs to tell SeeBS’s little Becky that three lawsuits have now been filed against her boy and more are on the way. She really needs to tune in to FOX News to find out what is going on. You aren’t going to learn much from SeeBS. Even Barry learns everything that is going on in the country from FOX News.
I suggest the GOPe fund a refugee camp/processing center on the South Lawn...
Obama and the ‘RATS have painted themselves in a corner and the Republicans should do absolutely NOTHING to help them out of their predicament. I sense that the ‘RATS are beginning to recognize that their attempt to cow the Republicans into STUPID actions is not working and they are entering the initial stages of ‘RAT PANIC.
3-month Continuing Resolution only from the lame duck session. And then in the New Republican congress, BORDER SECURITY ONLY. Let the ‘RATS vote against or veto that and they’ll think the 2014 election was the “good old days”.
I suggest a bill that puts immigration back to where it was before “The Swimmer” and Congress screwed it up.
The Democrats are exulting in Obama’s destruction of the US constitution and have challenged the Republicans to put the constitution back together again.
It's been done before (bills for improving border security), all of them ignored; I'm starting to become of the opinion that something like the States calling up their National Guard to secure the border, or declaration of war against Mexico (which endorses illegal immigration [aka Invasion]), is about the only way that will happen.
The Democrats, in their response to GOP objections to Obama’s actions are behaving with every bit as much treasonous disrespect for the Constitution as Obama. It is not relevant whether or not the GOP passes any so-called “immigration reform” legislation or not. The point is, the matter of Constitutional law is that with or without any so-called “immigration reform” legislation Obama does not have the authority to legislate United States law unilaterally.
Notice too that Obama’s action has very little to do with true immigration reform, it is merely about amnesty. It exposes the agenda the Democrats have had all along - they have obstructed immigration reform, they have held it hostage to amnesty because amnesty is all they really had on their immigration agenda.
You don’t govern lawlessness.
You eradicate it.
The GOP should just sit back and watch the Democrats Heads explode .
dear dems
here is a response
take a long walk off a short pier
PERFECT SUGGESTION!
This was the question posed by the soon-to-be Minority Whip, in relation to the new-found Republican majority, but then, it was just a little specious. Who ever said Democrats could govern, either?
They are certainly the world's most tenacious, and perhaps most shrill, debaters. But debate is not governance.
We should grab Baja Calif. and Mexico’s West Coast along with their Gulf of Mexico oil grounds.
Republicans should write a bill shutting down the southern. Border period,no expansion of refugee centers to accept the 100,000 more illegals on the way.
You got it- besides, it’s all a bluff anyway.
When a party loses as bad as the Dems did they will do anything for attention.
A fundamental problem with all of these approaches is that a lawless Obama will not be bound by any bill or language he doesn’t like. He will implement provisions that help his agenda and ignore or sabotage those he doesn’t. He is a master as dragging out anything he opposes and forcing lawsuits that take years to resolve, if ever.
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