[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 16207]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         PRESIDENTIAL OVERREACH

  (Mr. BARR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARR. Mr. Speaker, the American people have spoken, and they have 
spoken clearly. They want Congress and the President to work together 
in a bipartisan manner to deliver real solutions to the problems facing 
our country, one of which is our broken immigration system. So it is 
profoundly disappointing that the President has decided to ignore the 
will of the American people and act unilaterally to provide legal 
status and work permits to millions of people who have violated our 
immigration laws and are living in the United States illegally.
  We are a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws, and 
so there is a right way to reform our immigration system and a wrong 
way. Bypassing Congress, ignoring the Constitution, and issuing a 
unilateral executive order is the wrong way. It is unfair to those who 
immigrated to this country legally for the President to fail to do his 
duty to take care that the laws are faithfully executed.
  The Constitution and the rule of law matter. Instead of issuing yet 
another overreaching executive order, the President should join good 
faith Congressional efforts to solve this problem. The House has 
already passed bipartisan legislation to secure our border, which is 
what my constituents tell me is the most important first step.
  So I call on the President to follow suit. Stop dividing the American 
people, follow the Constitution, and work through the legislative 
branch to reform our immigration system the right way.

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