By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
BIRMINGHAM—On Wednesday, November 19, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R from Alabama) issued a written statement following the White House announced that President Obama will lay out his unilateral immigration actions on Thursday, which are expected to provide legal status and work permits to 5 million illegal aliens.
Senator Sessions said in a statement, “President Obama previously said he could not issue an executive amnesty because ‘I’m the President of the United States, I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed.’ Well, apparently we now have an ‘Emperor of the United States.’ President Obama’s immigration order would provide illegal immigrants with the exact benefits Congress has repeatedly rejected: Social Security numbers, photo IDs and work permits—which will allow them to now take jobs directly from struggling Americans in every occupation. Congress must not allow this unconstitutional action. That means Congress should fund the government while ensuring that no funds can be spent on this unlawful purpose.”
According to original reporting by the Daily Caller’s White House Correspondent Neil Munro, the White House understands that this is unpopular with the American people but they are going to do it anyway. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that the president is acting because “It is the right thing do, not because the polls are telling him its an extra-popular thing all around the country.”
Congressman Bradley Byrne (R from Montrose) said on Facebook Wednesday, “With President Obama set to announce executive action on immigration tomorrow night, here are 22 times the President said he couldn’t act alone on immigration. Example: ‘I am president, I am not king. I can’t do these things just by myself. We have a system of government that requires the Congress to work with the Executive Branch to make it happen.’”
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R from Ohio)’s office has documented all 22 of the public Obama denials that the President had the authority to enact executive amnesty in defiance of Congress and the American people who rejected Obama’s Democrats in elections across the country on December 4.
Senator Ted Cruz (R from Texas) told Fox News Megyn Kelly, “If the president goes forward with this, if he goes forward unilaterally defying the Congress elected by the people, defying the American voters, then it’s incumbent upon Republicans in Congress to use every single constitutional tool we have to defend the rule of law to reign in a president so that the president does not become an unaccountable monarch imposing his own policies in defiance of the American people…The founding of our country, the framers…were familiar of a despotic king.”
Sen. Cruz said, “The president is behaving in an unprecedented way. There is not, in recent times, any parallel for a president repudiated by the voters, standing up and essentially telling the voters to go jump in a lake.”
Given the President’s solo actions on immigration and expanding the EPA’s powers to give them unprecedented control over CO2 emissions without an act of Congress, the National Rifle Association (NRA) is warning that the increasingly powerful President Obama could attempt a similar coup against Americans’ gun rights.
On Tuesday the NRA wrote on Facebook, “Second Amendment advocates are concerned that the Obama administration will use a United Nations treaty as a basis for executive action on gun control. The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty is set to take effect on Christmas Eve. Though the United States delegation to the U.N. has supported the treaty, it has very little chance of being ratified by two-thirds of the Senate.”
Senator Jeff Sessions is the Ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee and is expected to be the Chairman of the Budget Committee when the Republicans take over control of the Senate in January.
