Reps. Marsha Blackburn and Steve King on President Obama’s Executive Amnesty

This week, Breitbart News published op-eds penned by Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Steve King (R-Iowa) in which they discuss President Obama’s executive amnesty and what to do about it.

Rep. Blackburn discussed the voters rejection of President Obama’s immigration policies, the impact of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), her trip to the Southern border, and her plans for the 114th Congress.

According to Rep. Blackburn, this year’s midterm elections were decided by “voter disgust over the President’s amnesty for undocumented individuals”.

“President Obama said in October that while he was not on the ballot, his policies were,” said Rep. Blackburn. “The result was a historic rejection of his radical agenda.”

She then criticized President Obama’s DACA and how it led to the border surge this past summer.

“The President’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was created by a June 15, 2012 Executive memorandum and allows illegal aliens to obtain a two-year deportation deferral, subject to renewal, along with work permits,” said Rep. Blackburn. “According to Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), there was a 412% increase in Family Unit apprehensions and an 88% increase in Unaccompanied Alien Children apprehensions at the Southwest border in FY2014 through August compared to the same time period for FY2013.”

Rep. Blackburn recalled a trip to the Southern border in October where she received a briefing from CBP at the McAllen Station in the Rio Grande Valley.

“The blunt assessment of CBP agents was that the President’s amnesty, in particular the DACA program, has been the root cause of the surge of illegal aliens crossing our Southern border,” said Rep. Blackburn. “CBP agents warned that further executive action to relax deportation standards would result in approximately 100,00 additional apprehensions next year within the McAllen jurisdiction alone.”

This past August, the House approved a bill written by Rep. Blackburn that defunded future executive amnesties and and DACA renewals. Rep. Blackburn ended by pledging to “re-introduce legislation to freeze DACA and tie the President’s hands with regard to creation of future deferred action programs at the beginning of the 114th Congress.”

In his op-ed, Rep. King discussed the unconstitutional overreach of power by President Obama’s executive amnesty and how Congress must use the power of the purse to stop it.

Rep. King pointed out the President’s statements before his 2012 reelection on how he cannot bypass Congress because “that’s not how a democracy works”. Now the President wants to, according to Rep. King, “unilaterally rewrite immigration law, and illegally grant amnesty to millions of people”.

“Our Republic will not long survive if we continue to allow a president to defy the Constitution, let alone the will of the people,” Rep. King wrote.

Rep. King then offered a solution to stop President Obama’s executive amnesty: Congress’ power of the purse.

“We can write a provision that specifically defunds any action the President may take to weaken enforcement of immigration law,” said Rep. King. “However, if we take another road, and enact an Omnibus appropriations bill that runs the course of the Fiscal Year with no mention of immigration enforcement, Congress will have no leverage.”

Read Rep. Blackburn’s full op-ed at Breitbart News

Read Rep. King’s full op-ed at Breitbart News