United States District Judge Andrew Hanen ruled late Monday night to temporarily block certain executive actions President Obama took late last year that would grant amnesty and work permits to an estimated 5 million illegal aliens. In the wake of the ruling, several Members of Congress have issued statements applauding the decision and doubling down on their commitment to pass a DHS spending bill that blocks funding for President Obama's executive amnesties.
Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio):
The president said 22 times he did not have the authority to take the very action on immigration he eventually did, so it is no surprise that at least one court has agreed. We will continue to follow the case as it moves through the legal process. Hopefully, Senate Democrats who claim to oppose this executive overreach will now let the Senate begin debate on a bill to fund the Homeland Security department.
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.):
This ruling underscores what the President has already acknowledged publicly 22 times: He doesn’t have the authority to take the kinds of actions he once referred to as 'ignoring the law' and 'unwise and unfair.' Senate Democrats--especially those who've voiced opposition to the President’s executive overreach—should end their partisan filibuster of Department of Homeland Security funding.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.):
President Obama’s executive overreach on immigration poses a clear and present danger to our Constitution and I am pleased that the President’s actions have been temporarily halted so that the states’ lawsuit can move forward. By acting unilaterally to rewrite our nation’s immigration laws, President Obama has disregarded the will of the American people and violated the Constitution. We cannot allow one man to nullify the law of the land with either a stroke of his pen or a phone call.
This ruling underscores the importance and urgency of Congress defunding President Obama’s executive overreach on immigration. Now that the legality of the President’s executive decrees has been questioned by both the legislative and judicial branches, Senate Democrats should stop their obstructionism and allow debate on the House-passed bill that would defund President Obama’s effective rewriting of our nation’s immigration laws. We must act now on a bipartisan basis to restore the separation of powers so that we protect individual liberty for the generations to come.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.):
Monday’s district court ruling against the President’s illegal overreach on immigration confirms that not only are his actions unpopular with the American people, they’re a direct violation of the constitutional separation of powers,” Rep. Scalise said. “The court confirmed what House Republicans have been saying all along: President Obama does not have the legal authority to grant executive amnesty to people here illegally. This ruling also sends a strong message to Senate Democrats: Get back to Washington and stop blocking funding of the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to defend the president's unlawful action.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
The court’s ruling is yet further affirmation that the President’s action – as the President himself admitted many times – is illegal. President Obama has suspended some 500 pages of existing immigration law passed by the representatives of the American people, and replaced it with the very measures those representatives have repeatedly rejected. The President’s action violates our laws, our Constitution, and the centuries of legal heritage that yielded our Republic.
Congress, so threatened, can never acquiesce to this action by funding it. The President has acted unconstitutionally, and it is the President – not Congress – who must back down. We are a coequal branch of government, delegated with the powers necessary to defend our institution and our Constitutional role. We cannot and must not establish the precedent that we will fund illegal actions on the hope that another branch of government will intervene and strike down that illegal action at some later point. To establish such a precedent would be to empower any future President to demand Congress fund any unlawful decree, and then assert that Congress is ‘shutting down the government’ unless this illegal, off-the-books program is funded. Congress must reassert its waning power. We must reestablish the Constitutional principle that the people’s representatives control the purse.
This ruling is not an escape hatch for Democrat lawmakers who have been filibustering the House bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and block illegal amnesty. Congress cannot fund the very action which dissolves Congress’ lawmaking powers. Rather, today’s ruling should furnish our colleagues with yet one more reason to end their filibuster. President Obama has already shut down the Department of Homeland Security by ordering tens of thousands of immigration officers and agents to violate our laws and their oaths, sabotaging immigration enforcement and border control. Republicans are trying every day to restore Homeland Security – only a Democrat filibuster stands in the way.
Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.):
The president himself said at least 22 times that he did not have the authority to grant amnesty without the consent of Congress. This ruling is good news to anyone who believes in the Constitution and the rule of law. In the House, we have already voted to defund the president’s executive amnesty, and it is now time for the Senate to act as well. In addition, I am still in support of a federal lawsuit to block the president’s unlawful actions.
The president’s amnesty program for millions of illegal immigrants will make screening and verifying the background of the applicants impossible. It will also place those who are here legally in direct competition for jobs with people who have broken our laws. We have immigration laws in this country for two main reasons: to protect national security and to preserve American jobs. The president’s executive amnesty program violates both of those principles.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.):
President Obama’s immigration executive order is a stunning display of arrogance and disregard for our Constitution and must be stopped. The court’s decision to block the implementation of this order is an important step toward restoring the rule of law and protecting Americans from President Obama’s unlawful immigration policies. And it affirms Congress's attempts to block this executive order ourselves in the Department of Homeland Security’s funding bill. Senate Democrats should heed this decision as a warning and drop their filibuster of this important legislation. It’s time to stop playing politics with our national security.
As this case continues to make its way through the legal process, I am confident this decision will be upheld. I applaud Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and 25 of his fellow Governors for their role in this case and for fighting back against this unlawful action. I stand with him in his efforts to protect Arkansans from President Obama’s harmful policies.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.):
The federal district court ruling and temporary injunction against President Obama's executive amnesty once again shows that the president has exceeded his legal and constitutional authority. The states bringing this lawsuit, which include Wisconsin, are right to be concerned about the costs that will be imposed on their taxpayers by these illegal executive actions. As chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, I called a recent hearing on executive amnesty. The committee raised a number of other serious issues, including U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' inability to effectively administer the actions, the resulting harmful effect on legal immigrants, and the issuance of Social Security numbers to people who entered this country illegally, allowing them to access a variety of financial benefits. I hope that the district court's ruling will be upheld and that the Senate will vote on a bill to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security's important activities except for the illegal executive amnesty.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas):
The Texas court decision reached last night is a major turning point in the fight to stop Obama's lawless amnesty," said Sen. Cruz. "Gov. Abbott and Attorney General Paxton are leading a coalition of 26 states to block the illegal executive actions and to protect our states, cities, and communities. This is a major victory for the rule of law; the District Court's ruling states that President Obama must now stop implementing these policies in 'any and all aspects.' Last summer we saw a humanitarian crisis on our southern border that was a direct consequence of Obama's previous amnesty. Republicans are now standing together to try to ensure that it never happens again.
The Senate Democrats who are filibustering Department of Homeland Security funding should look hard at this ruling. At a time when we face grave national security threats, at home and abroad, it is the height of irresponsibility for the Democrats to block this funding in an extreme attempt to save Obama's amnesty, which a federal judge has just declared illegal.
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.):
A federal judge has confirmed what the rest of the nation has known all this time, that the president overstepped his legal authority to grant amnesty to roughly 5 million illegal immigrants. I applaud the U.S. Southern District Court of Texas for acknowledging the untold cost the president's actions will have on our states, and I commend Attorney General Scott Pruitt and the state of Oklahoma for helping lead the charge against these unconstitutional actions. It is my hope that as this case makes its way through the courts, the judicial system will see these illegal actions for what they are, an unconstitutional executive overreach that should not be allowed to stand. In the meantime, I urge my colleagues across the aisle to end their filibuster in the Senate and allow for an open amendment process on a House-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
Before the decision was issued, several Members of Congress said that such a ruling would allow for Senate Democrats to allow the DHS spending bill to pass. Senate immigration subcommittee chairman Sen. Sessions said last week that such a ruling "would have a huge impact."
“I would think it would be further proof that the president overreached and shouldn’t be funded, and it would cause the Democrats to re-evaluate their obstruction.”
Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) echoed Sen. Sessions’ statement.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for the Senate Democrats to actually allow our bill to move forward,” Rep. Huelskamp said. “There should be no concerns to them if the courts are saying this is not going to be implemented.”
NOTE: We will continue to update this story as more statements become available.
For more information on Judge Hanen's injunction, see our news story.
