[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 5954-5955]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. GRASSLEY. I want to talk about immigration and a part of the 
immigration issue that concerns me, and, by golly, it has something to 
do with government oversight as well.
  Last August, some lawyers at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration 
Service drafted internal memos outlining ways that the administration 
could get around Congress and grant undocumented aliens in the United 
States legal status. These amnesty memos outline ways that the 
executive branch could use discretionary authority to make sure 
thousands--who knows, maybe millions--of people here illegally could 
stay here without a vote of Congress.
  A number of Republicans sent a letter to President Obama urging him 
to abandon any such plan. We sent several letters to Homeland Security 
Secretary Napolitano asking for statistics and a briefing on these 
memos. We asked for assurances that such plans to bypass Congress--I 
emphasize ``plans to bypass Congress''--not be implemented. What did we 
get? All we got was radio silence.
  I raise this issue again today because I am bothered by reports that 
there is another push for this administration to grant amnesty through 
Executive order, which only should be done by the law of this Congress, 
to certain groups of undocumented populations. Surprisingly, the push 
for this is coming from our friends on the other side of the aisle. 
Yesterday, 22 Democrats sent a letter to President Obama asking him to 
turn a blind eye to the law. These 22 Senators said they were OK with 
having an executive branch go ahead and go around Congress and grant 
amnesty to those who would be eligible under the so-called DREAM Act. 
These Senators said they didn't have the votes to get the bill through 
the Senate last year.
  Their approach is in a nonconstitutional fashion to ask the President 
to have his administration use what is referred to legally as 
prosecutorial discretion to keep these undocumented individuals here. 
They claim doing so would be ``consistent with our strong interest in 
the rule of law.'' They say doing so would ``help to conserve limited 
enforcement resources.''
  I am appalled, and I hope a lot of my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle are appalled, that Members of this body think that an Executive 
order to grant amnesty behind our backs is not an assault on the 
democratic process. Congress has the power to change immigration laws 
and only Congress has the power to change immigration laws. The 
President has limited authority to grant relief in limited and 
emergency circumstances. I support the President's power to do that, 
but it was not meant to be used in a blanket fashion. The request by 22 
Members of this body is an affront to our country's longstanding belief 
in the rule of law, and it is an attack on this body's duty to

[[Page 5955]]

legislate on behalf of the American people, a power to legislate that 
the President does not have.
  I happen to agree that our immigration policies have to be reformed. 
I will commit to moving legislation that expands upon or improves the 
legal avenue we currently have in place. Once again, we have not seen 
leadership by this President to work on a bill this Congress can 
support. Until that time comes, it would be foolish and disappointing 
if this President circumvented the democratic process and did what 22 
Members of this body asked him to do in the letter to which I referred.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.

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