The U.S House voted to let U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., file an amicus brief to join a challenge to President Barack Obama’s executive orders on immigration reform on Thursday but three Florida Republicans joined the Democrats in opposing the GOP majority.
The House passed the measure 234 to 186 to join the challenge which will be heard before the U.S. Supreme Court next month. Party lines mostly held but five Republican members--including U.S. Reps. Carlos Curbelo, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen--joined the Democrats in voting against the proposal.
In voting for the measure, U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., insisted Obama overstepped his bounds.
“President Obama took it upon himself to unilaterally suspend the deportations of undocumented immigrants who were streaming into the United States,” Yoho said. “His executive overreach was done without the consent of the House and was a slap in the face to Congress, our Constitution, the American people, and to the immigrants themselves. In November of 2014, I introduced a bill, H.R. 5759, that aimed to nullify this move by the White House and it successfully passed the House.”
Yoho looked ahead to the Supreme Court hearing next month and claimed the stakes were high.
“Soon, the highest court in the land will decide whether Obama’s executive amnesty - during that time - violated his constitutional duty to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed.’ Article 1 of the Constitution states that, ‘all legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress,’ that includes the drafting of immigration laws,” Yoho said. “If the president, any president, Democrat or Republican, decides to pick and choose what laws they will enforce, then what good are the laws we pass? Congress writes the laws and the president faithfully executes them. That is the way our Founders envisioned our system of government.
“Today’s vote is not about politics, it is about the very Constitution that guides this nation and the rule of law,” Yoho added. “I am proud to stand with all of my House colleagues today in defense of our Article 1 powers. And we welcome President Obama’s earnest efforts to work together to create responsible immigration reform.”
U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla., part of the House leadership as senior deputy majority whip, said Obama went too far and the House was joining an effort to restore checks and balances at the federal level.
“The passing of this resolution today is an important stride toward stopping President Obama’s egregious executive overreach and unconstitutional actions in dealing with immigration,” Ross said on Thursday. “The Constitution gives the executive branch the power to faithfully execute the law, not to make it. As I have said before, that is why our Founding Fathers listed Congress’ powers in Article I and presidential powers in Article II. We must enforce our system of checks and balances on this administration and prevent executive actions that blatantly circumvent Congress, especially when such actions affect issues as critical as immigration reform.”
Florida Democrats lined up against the resolution with U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), dismissing the vote as the latest GOP attempt to undermine Obama.
“House Republicans doubled down on their failed strategy of obstructing and opposing President Obama’s every move – this time by formally opposing executive actions which would benefit millions of children, parents and families who have come to this nation and especially to Florida,” Wasserman Schultz said. “President Obama’s executive actions fall well within previous executive actions by presidents of both parties, and would help keep families together. Instead of standing with families, my Republican colleagues, many of whom tout their so-called ‘pro-family’ credentials, chose bitter and divisive partisanship over commonsense reforms that would keep our nation safer and lift up millions of people.”
Curbelo joined Democrats in opposing the proposal, calling for Congress to pass immigration reform and criticizing both the GOP and Obama for failing to address the problem.
“Defending the Constitution's separation of powers doctrine is absolutely fundamental,” Curbelo said. “However, House leaders do not need this resolution in order to defend Article I. For too long both parties have preferred to score petty political points using the immigration issue rather than passing meaningful reform to secure the border, reform our visa system, and find a fair solution for the undocumented. The surest, and most constitutionally solvent way to end the President's executive overreach is to pass meaningful immigration reform - not by employing empty tactics that ignore the root cause of the problem.”
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
