[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14082-14084]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           AMNESTY IN AMERICA

  Mr. SESSIONS. President Obama announced Friday that he would not 
follow through on his promise to utilize Executive orders by the end of 
the summer to provide amnesty and work authorization for 5 to 6 million 
illegal immigrants who cannot work lawfully in America because they 
unlawfully entered the country or have overstayed their visas. That 
does not indicate he has in any way abandoned his plan to execute such 
an Executive amnesty.
  Indeed, the President directly said he understands that the American 
people oppose what he is doing--this authorization to work and create a 
legal status by Executive action. The American people oppose it by more 
than 2 to 1. So is he going to back off and honor the wishes of the 
American people? No, not at all--this is the point the American people 
need to understand.
  The President is now brazenly reaffirming in even clearer language 
that he will carry out his amnesty plan--but only after the election in 
November. This is an attempt to protect his Democratic Senate 
candidates. Just a few moments ago, his spokesman, Josh Earnest--Mr. 
Flack--said it would be wrong to inject this issue into the election.
  What I say to Mr. Flack at the White House, whose salary is paid by 
the American people, is the American people have one chance to have 
their voice heard. The President is talking about unilateral, illegal 
action contrary to American law to legalize as many as 5 to 6 million 
people and we should not inject it into the election. There are 
Democratic Senators and other Senators who failed to object to that--
should they now be protected from being criticized for allowing this to 
occur? Is that what we have gotten to in our democracy, that the 
President can make this decision and not involve the American people? 
They think they should stay out of this. That they should not talk 
about it in an election. Well, when should we talk about grave issues 
that are facing America if not during the election cycle?
  I think it is time for the Senate, and all Senators, to be heard 
explicitly. Where do you stand? Do you support the legislation that the 
House of Representatives has passed that would effectively--as we often 
do around here--bar the President from spending any money to execute 
such an illegal, unauthorized amnesty or not? Are you for it or not?
  Well, we know one thing. If it is left up to the Democratic leader in 
the Senate, it will not be brought up. So it will take a lot of 
Senators to stand up to Majority Leader Reid and President Obama and 
bring the legislation the House has passed that would bar the 
expenditure of any money to carry out an unlawful amnesty.
  The President cannot give work authorization--as he and his people 
have said he intends to do--to people unlawfully in America. The law 
says they are not eligible to work in America, and they are not 
eligible to be hired in America. The President cannot say, as he has 
already done for the young people through the DACA program: You are 
authorized to work. They are now talking about 5 to 6 million more 
people. One article correctly said there

[[Page 14083]]

were 10 times as many adults--many of them presumably have entered the 
country illegally only recently.
  I think we have to understand what is going on, and we need to 
challenge our colleagues to stand up and be counted--counted with 
regard to the legitimate authority of Congress, which has passed laws 
of this country that are due to be executed and carried out faithfully 
by the President of the United States. He is not authorized to just not 
enforce the law and not utilize the ICE officers and Border Patrol 
officers and block them from doing their work.
  The ICE officers have even sued the Administration, the head of DHS 
and the ICE director, because they have been blocked from following 
their oath to enforce the laws of the United States. No wonder this is 
an important issue. No wonder the American people's interest is rising 
on this issue, and they have every right to do so.
  Well, I am going to explain why this amnesty is unlawful, how it will 
hurt the American worker, and how it will eviscerate any hope of ever 
establishing a lawful immigration system in the future if it goes 
forward. First, let's look at recent events. The President stated at 
the NATO conference a few days ago that he will give legal status to 
persons who are unlawfully here by utilizing Executive orders. I say to 
the American people and to my colleagues that he cannot do that. Those 
individuals are unlawfully here. He has no power to reverse the laws 
passed by the Congress of the United States and declare someone lawful 
who is unlawful. It is a thunderous, dramatic abuse of Presidential 
power.
  He has made it clear previously that his amnesty will include work 
authorization, and he cannot do that either. It is plainly contrary to 
law. He has already provided executive amnesty and work permits to 
those who supposedly came here as young people, although the proof is 
very uncertain. ICE officers report that they are forced to take 
someone's word about qualifying for the amnesty. So they are certainly 
not very tight about verifying that. His advisers and allies openly 
boast about how broad this is going to be. They say you must go ahead, 
Mr. President, and do even more than you are saying you are going to do 
now under this plan. It is really all because of the opposition of the 
American people.
  By a substantial majority, the American people oppose this action, 
but the President is intending to do it. According to the news reports, 
Members of the Senate went to the President and said: Don't do this 
now, Mr. President. I know you promised to do it before the end of the 
summer, but don't do it now because that might hurt me in my election. 
I might have to block votes in the Senate that will stop you from doing 
this, and I will get criticized for doing it. Please don't do this now. 
Don't do it now. You can do it after the election, when I have secured 
my 6-year term. Do it then, Mr. President.
  No wonder Senator McConnell referred to that as a cynical act by the 
President.
  This was a dramatic event which occurred over weekend. This executive 
amnesty would include work permits for millions of people who illegally 
entered the United States or have overstayed their visas and they are 
here unlawfully. It is a violation of a sovereign, constitutional law 
passed by the people's representatives in the Congress. It wipes away 
the Immigration and Nationality Act's clear rules on who can enter the 
United States, who can work in the United States, and who can live in 
the United States. Don't we all agree that our Nation has a right to 
establish that? Shouldn't those rules and principles be established and 
followed? We are not against immigration. We have 1 million people come 
to our country every year legally. They apply, wait their time, and 
then they have the benefit of citizenship in America. We have one of 
the most generous immigration policies in the entire world. In addition 
to permanent immigration flows, we have a huge temporary guest worker 
program which allows people to come here and take jobs. The President 
wants to double the number of people who come here and take jobs, but 
the House has refused to do that.
  These rules are the bedrock of any Nation's immigration policy and 
sovereignty, and in reality the President is actually and truly 
proposing to wipe away what amounts to the few immigration rules that 
are in effect. Through executive action, the President is proposing to 
repeal the lawful protections to which every American worker is 
entitled. His action would allow millions of illegal immigrants to 
instantly take precious jobs from struggling and unemployed American 
workers by the millions in every sector of the economy. These are not 
just agricultural and seasonal workers.
  Under the President's plan, these people who are given work 
authorization would be entitled to take any job. They would be entitled 
to work at the county commission or the energy company or power 
company. They would be entitled to work at the manufacturing plants and 
drive the forklifts and heavy equipment. They would be eligible for 
good jobs--jobs that are good for America.
  This is at a time of high unemployment and falling wages. We are now 
talking about another 5 million people who will be rewarded with the 
ability to take the best jobs in America when millions of Americans are 
struggling and wages are falling and we have the highest percentage of 
people outside of the workforce in America since the 1970s. We have a 
higher percentage of people who are working part-time instead of 
working full-time. There are people who are on welfare. Food stamps 
have gone up fourfold. We need to get our people working first.
  Again, no one that I know of would say that the people who want to 
come to America and work are evil or bad people. We have a generous 
immigration plan. We are not saying bad things about them. We are 
simply saying that if you want to come to America, apply. If you don't 
qualify, we are sorry. We are not able to accept everybody who would 
like to come to America. We have rules and regulations to make sure we 
identify people who are likely to be successful in America and won't to 
be on the welfare rolls and won't demand health care from the 
government and will be able to pay their fair share of the cost of 
living in America. That is what any smart Nation does.
  I think what people need to know right now is that this 
unconstitutional action--this planned executive amnesty--has not gone 
away. It is only a matter of months now that it has been delayed--
unless the American people stop it from happening.
  The New York Times reported a few days ago on the timing of these 
actions. They said this:

       President Obama will delay taking executive action on 
     immigration until after the midterm elections, bowing to 
     pressure from fellow Democrats who feared that taking action 
     now could doom his party's chances this fall, White House 
     officials said on Saturday.

  Well, what does that mean? It was reported in a very neutral way. The 
New York Times, of course, favors amnesty. But how cynical is that? How 
cynical is it that the President is now going to take action on a 
different date than he promised repeatedly, because he is afraid that 
if he does it now, the American people will have an opportunity to 
register their opinion come November and members of his party will face 
election and they are going to be asked, Did they support and vote for 
this or not? He does not want that to happen.
  What is wrong with the American people being able to influence their 
government? Is the President above that? Has he reached such a high 
level of popularity he doesn't have to worry about what the American 
people say, think, or believe, and that he can advocate and carry out 
policy based on political deals he has made with big business and 
special-interest groups and politicians. Even when the American people 
don't support it and Congress won't pass it, he gets to do it anyway? 
Is this where we are in America today?
  What is particularly disturbing is our Senate Democratic colleagues 
apparently don't object to the President carrying out unilateral 
executive amnesty; they only prefer that the President implement it 
after the election,

[[Page 14084]]

after their race is over, so they don't have to explain it to the 
people they represent.
  Politico reported one typical Senate Democrat office as saying: 
``Obama should use his executive authority to make fixes to the 
immigration system, but after the November elections.'' After the 
elections. Don't let it blow back on me. Go ahead, Mr. President, we 
want you to do this fix, but don't do it now, do it after the election 
so nobody can hold me to account.
  I think the American people are getting tired of this. I think they 
are wising up. The politicians work for the American people; the 
American people don't work for the politicians.
  We held a vote in the Senate on July 31. I sought to block this 
action by bringing up a bill similar to a bill the House passed that 
would bar the President from spending any money to carry out this 
executive amnesty. Only one Senate Democrat--Senator Manchin--voted in 
support of allowing the bill to come up for a vote. And no one, to my 
knowledge, on the Democratic side has challenged Senator Reid and his 
blocking of the House-type legislation.
  It is a very serious matter that we are engaged in today. It is a 
very serious matter. The moral underpinnings, the integrity of the 
immigration law--already seriously damaged by the DACA action President 
Obama took--will be fatally wounded if he now legalizes 5 million to 6 
million people unilaterally. How could we then tell anybody in the 
future they have to comply with the law?
  The President himself said at the NATO conference that if we do his 
executive amnesty, it will, as he said, encourage legal immigration. 
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Rewarding millions more who have entered the 
country illegally--rewarding their illegal acts--is not going to cause 
more people to follow the law; it is going to be a further weakening of 
the law. And in the future, how will we be able to tell people who came 
across the border after that, that they shouldn't be given lawful 
status, rewarding them for their illegal act? It is that simple.
  We are going to have to confront this issue. Congress needs to stand 
up, affirm the rule of law, do the right thing. We are not against 
immigration. We are not against immigrants. We don't believe this 
country ought to be isolationist. But we have a right--and the American 
people have a right--to believe their government will create an 
effective, honorable system of immigration and see that it is enforced 
fairly and resolutely. That is the moral thing to do. It is the right 
thing to do. It is what the American people have been demanding for 30 
or 40 years, and the politicians have steadfastly refused.
  I think it is time for the people's voices to be heard. The American 
people are right on this issue. They are exactly right. We are failing 
the future of our country, the lawful system of our country, we are 
failing the American people, and we are failing American workers who 
are having a difficult time today finding jobs and seeing their wages 
decline.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair and yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.

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