Sen. Ayotte: Opposed Obama’s Amnesty Before Voting For It

Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) voted to fund President Obama’s executive amnesty during the lame-duck session contrary to her earlier statements. She was one of several Senators who had come out against the president’s actions, but then voted much differently.

These Senators, including Senator Ayotte had an opportunity to back up their rhetoric with action when Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) raised a “point of order” challenging the constitutionality of the president’s executive action while the Senate debated the 2015 spending bill.

While 21 other Senators stood up and voted with Senator Cruz, 28 Senators who had previously come out against executive amnesty voted in favor of fully funding it.

In anticipation of the president’s announcement, Senator Ayotte released the following statement:

While I support fixing our nation’s broken immigration system, the president should honor his own words that unilateral action on immigration reform is ‘not how our democracy functions’ and ‘not how our Constitution is written.‘ By circumventing Congress, the president will only make it more difficult to achieve long-term reforms to secure our border, stop future waves of illegal immigration, and reform our legal immigration system.

For a full list of U.S. Senators who voted for and against the Senator Cruz’s point of order, see the roll call vote.