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.
Heh-—if they were swarming into elite San Francisco, she’d be singing a different tune.
you BET she would!! her words wiould not be heard nor read by the likes of us...
IF the “Immigrants” were headed for the MISSION DISTRICT....all would be well.
If on the OTHER HAND....they were headed for Pacific Heights...
shed simply make a call to the local power brokers...and all would be well...
Where’s the two houses’ ‘ethics committee’? Where is the GOP(e) and party voices?? Is not the language of Schumer and Durbin inflammatory, seditious and outside the protection of ‘while in session’??
Well, it only shows we are no longer a Republic...Constitution be damned. Guess I don’t need to worry about any laws anymore myself
This is how Obama, “works with Congress”. By threats.
The damned Republicans better get their act together and realize they are dealing with a sociopath(s) and act accordingly.
Limbaugh was right when he said the other day that Obama and Democrats are just getting started. They are going to “burn it all down”.
Like hell he’s a lame duck.
It would be high treason in particular if the GoP fund raised in support of this.
With unemployment among blacks so high . . . where ever will they get jobs IF cheap labor becomes available with amnesty?
And they can’t even take care of our Veteran’s much less 15 million illegals. Geez.
I’m sure that Boner and buddies will FULLY FUND IT, too.
Which means that Obama will do the same thing NO MATTER WHAT THE GOP PASSES. “Immigration reform” will get them NOTHING.
In other words, give obama what he wants or he will take what he wants.
At this point you should be lucky you are not at the end of a rope. NO more American jobs for foreigners. Period.
> the president will borrow the power
These people are outlaws by definition.
.
All Perry does is get on national TV and whine that the Feds won’t secure Texas’ border- even as thousands of illegal aliens flood over each day, bringing crime, disease
and untold expense to support them. And we are even fired upon by the Mexicans from across the border- yet Perry and our reps do nothing.
Perry lied about Texas not having the resources to stop it.
(He did finally promise a ‘surge’, but where is it??)
The Texas governor and reps do nothing while Obama’s Cloward-Piven scheme is working well to destroy Texas’ freedom and system of government- as well as the freedom and system of government of the U.S.
Travis and Houston fought and died for Texas.
They would be ashamed of the whimpy Texans today who sit on their duffs, whine, are too afraid of the little dictator, Obama, or just don’t give a d*mn.
My deepest apologies to Travis, Houston, the heroes of the Alamo and the Texas revolution.
.
Obamacare and Voter Registration cards for all. The Republicans will sit back and watch their party (and country) die in one fell swoop.
It kinda is:
pardon
noun
- kind indulgence, as in forgiveness of an offense or discourtesy or in tolerance of a distraction or inconvenience: I beg your pardon, but which way is Spruce Street?
- Law.
- release from the penalty of an offense; a remission of penalty, as by a governor.
- the document by which such remission is declared.
- forgiveness of a serious offense or offender.
- Obsolete. a papal indulgence.
Texas Constitution, Art 4, Sec 7:
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF MILITARY FORCES; CALLING FORTH MILITIA.
He shall be Commander-in-Chief of the military forces of the State, except when they are called into actual service of the United States. He shall have power to call forth the militia to execute the laws of the State, to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions.
It isn’t; the situation of their being there would have to be addressed separately. Unless amnestied (different from pardoning) it still would be ciao to them.
This will be the straw...
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