Posted on 06/27/2014 3:13:54 AM PDT by markomalley
The Obama administration is "not bluffing" in its intent to take executive action on immigration policy if House Republicans don't act soon, top Democratic leaders warned Thursday.
President Obama has delayed any potential changes to his deportation policy to allow House GOP leaders time to bring legislation to the floor this summer. But if the Republicans don't act in July, the Democrats say, unilateral changes by Obama are inevitable.
"We're at the end of the line," Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said Thursday during a press briefing in the Capitol. "We're not bluffing by setting a legislative deadline for them to act.
"Their first job is to govern," Menendez added, "and in the absence of governing, then you see executive actions."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) piled on. Noting that a year has passed since the Senate passed a sweeping immigration reform bill with broad bipartisan support, he urged House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to bring a similar bill to the floor.
"I don't know how much more time he thinks he needs, but I hope that Speaker Boehner will speak up today," Durbin said. "And if he does not, the president will borrow the power that is needed to solve the problems of immigration."
The remarks come a day after Boehner announced his intent to push legislation allowing the House to sue Obama for what the Republicans say is a habitual inclination to overstep his constitutional authority.
"When there is a failure on the part of the president to faithfully execute the law, the House has the authority to challenge this failure," Boehner wrote Wednesday in a memo to House lawmakers.
Boehner did not name specific examples of alleged overreach, but Republicans have long been up in arms over Obama's 2012 program allowing some high-achieving illegal immigrants brought to the United States as kids to stay in the country and work without fear of deportation.
Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking Democrat in the upper chamber, said Boehner and other Republican critics of Obama's executive actions have "a very good antidote" for their fears: "Put a bill on the floor."
"He's, like, shooting his parents and then throwing himself on the mercy of the court as an orphan," Schumer said. "Pass a bill, and that won't happen.
"If they don't bring any bill to the floor, the president has no choice — on a humanitarian basis and on a policy basis — to act where he can on his own," Schumer added.
Boehner on Tuesday said the current influx of immigrant children across the southern border will only make it tougher to pass legislation this year. The Speaker blamed Obama for the crisis.
"The president's making this harder and harder every day for us to try to deal with this in a responsible way," Boehner told reporters in the Capitol. "We've got a humanitarian disaster on the border. Most of it, at the president's own making, in my opinion, and so it makes our jobs much more difficult because of the actions he's taken or not taken with regard to the border."
Some immigration reformers have been hopeful that the recent shake-up in Republican leadership, which will have Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) soon replacing Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in the majority leader spot, could lead to action on immigration reform this year.
But McCarthy on Sunday seemed to throw cold water on that notion, telling Fox News that he plans to do "nothing about immigration until we secure the borders" — a sharp change from January, when he promoted "legal status" for illegal immigrants "that will allow you to work and pay taxes" without fear of deportation.
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Thursday that he spoke with McCarthy on Wednesday, urging the incoming majority leader to bring an immigration bill to the floor.
Hoyer did not reveal McCarthy's response.
I’m sure this has Boehner shaking at the knees...seriously!
So let me get this straight, Senor Menendez ... If the House doesn't pass a bill that the Senate has passed, then they're not governing?
Hey @sshole ... if the House doesn't pass the bill then the Federal laws on these matters stay the same -- and the only "executive actions" to be taken are the enforcement of the f#%&ing law as it stands.
The good news is that history is filled with examples of how this kind of approach to government runs its course.
The bad news is that none of these cases have a happy ending.
Dictatorship materializing before our own eyes. Never thought it would happen. The concept of checks and balances in government is a concept beyond comprehension for these oligarchic lawless criminals.
“borrow the power”
well well well Durbin
admits Obama doesn’t have this power
love to see the USSC address the issue of the executive branch “borrowing” power to legislate
will Boehner accede to - save obama from yet another and highly obvious and visible impeachable act?
If Obama cannot pass his agenda through the House and Senate as the Constitution dictates, then his agenda is not that of the American people. It is that simple.
Any action he takes in a manner other than that is tyranny.
As I’ve said so often over the past five terrible years, I miss the rule of law.
“This also may be the time for armed citizens to form those militias we are required to do under the constitution. It is becoming apparent that our elected reps are not going to do anything.”
No maybe about it.
This is an easy fix. Bring a bill to the floor with 3 words. Secure the border.
Oh, and by the way, are you calling your elected officials?
More empty threats. He doesnt have the power.
Wrong, The Republicans gaining power of the Senate is now totally up in the air and a quick reminder of history will enlighten you to just how feckless the Republicans really are. Does “Slick Willy” ring a bell?
The media will simply turn the tables and the Republicans will impeach themselves.
What exactly can he do in regards to immigration?
Its so much theater! The Dems and the Repubs are in amnesty together. This is just the Dems helping GOPe appear to be against amnesty.
Too much “realism” ends up in enslavement to the world.
he’s leading but no one’s following...............
Okay. zero dollars for the disaster he’s creating.
let him executive order his way out of the mess.
I would like to see a repub say to this admin that if they insist on operating outside the law, then they should not expect any Constitutional protections.
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