President Barack Obama's immigration policy protecting up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation in the United States is "against the spirit of our Constitution," Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers, the Republican who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said Thursday.
Republican lawmakers had repeatedly warned Obama that taking executive action on immigration might poison relations with the new GOP-led legislature but to no avail. Now, Rogers has stated that it's time for Congress to fight back against the legislation, The Courier-Journal reported.
"With this new proposal, the president has once again demonstrated his willingness to act unilaterally - against the spirit of our Constitution, against the law of Congress, and against the will of the American people - to make misguided, unwarranted changes to our immigration laws," Rogers said in a statement.
"His flagrant disregard for our nation's laws is not only disappointing but deeply unsettling - I won't stand for it, and the American people won't stand for it," he said.
Apart from suspending deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, the immigration reform would also expand policy of "deferred action" on deportation of illegal immigrants who came to the country as children, as well as for parents of U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents, The Hill reported.
"The president's proposal simply won't solve the problems plaguing our nation's immigration system - in fact, it may make things worse," Rogers continued. "Granting this kind of unilateral amnesty to illegal immigrants undermines the integrity of our laws, and at its core harms the thousands of people who have patiently waited their turn to immigrate to the United States legally."
The provision could let up to 4.5 million undocumented immigrants with U.S.-born children remain in the country for three years, Fox News said, citing estimates.
"Although Obama characterized those and other measures as 'a common-sense, middle-ground approach,' Republicans were outraged at what they called an unauthorized expansion of executive power in an area that should remain under the purview of Congress," The Courier-Journal reported.
Specifically, one of the speculated options has been to slash funds for the agency responsible for implementing Obama's actions. However, that scenario doesn't appear to be realistic since the U.S. citizenship and Immigration Services agency receives all of its money from application fees, which are not affected by the congressional budget process.
The House appropriations panel conceded as much in a statement, saying the "appropriations process cannot be used to 'de-fund' the agency."
"The agency has the ability to continue to collect and use fees to continue current operations, and to expand operations as under a new Executive Order, without needing legislative approval by the Appropriations Committee or the Congress, even under a continuing resolution or a government shutdown," the committee said.
Even so, Rogers, who represents Kentucky's 5th District, was adamant that he and his GOP colleagues would seek to reverse Obama's actions, Fox News reported.
"Rather than acting alone to extend this broad-reaching amnesty, the president should work with Congress on legislation that more completely addresses our nation's broken immigration system, and he should start by turning back the tide of illegal immigration, fully enforcing our laws, and securing our borders - all which are crucial to any successful U.S. immigration policy," the Kentucky lawmaker added.
"We have heard the collective outrage of the American people," he said. "Congress must fight this executive order tooth and nail through legislative means that will enact real change."
