Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart Oppose Obama's Immigration Action

Florida Republican U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart have generally been supporters of immigration reform plans. Diaz-Balart has taken the lead in urging Republicans in the House to pass the Gang of Eights" immigration reform bill that passed the Senate. But the two Republicans teamed up on Thursday night to release a statement, opposing President Barack Obamas immigration actions. The statement is as follows:

As President Obama has stated, I am president of the United States, not the emperor of the United States. He further stated that acting unilaterally is ignoring the law in a way that I believe would be very difficult to defend legally. Now, the president says he has the authority to stop deportations. It begs the question why did President Obama deport more than 2 million people, dividing families, when according to him it could have been avoided?

While we agree on the merits of some of the announced measures, the presidents executive order makes it more difficult to pass a common-sense solution to our countrys broken immigration system. We continue to believe that we must find a bipartisan, legislative solution to strengthen our borders, offer a permanent and humane solution to those living in the shadows, adhere to the rule of law, modernize our antiquated visa system, and bolster the economy. None of this is accomplished by the presidents executive order.

Shortly after this years election, President Obama said he was willing to work together with the new Congress. He has now clearly demonstrated that he has no intention of doing so. His actions will unfortunately further divide our country. We are committed to finding a bipartisan, legislative solution that will unite a majority of Congress and the American people on this critical issue.