In a sit-down interview with the anti-Trump publication the Huffington Post, House Speaker Paul Ryan suggested that he might sue President Trump if he were to enact a temporary pause on Muslim migration into the United States.
The Huffington Post writes:
In a sit-down interview in his ceremonial Capitol Hill office on Thursday, Ryan told The Huffington Post that Trump does not have “a blank check” with his endorsement… On the topic of Trump’s proposed Muslim ban and his statements that he could enact such a policy without Congress, Ryan noted that Republicans were releasing part of their agenda on executive overreach that very day, and, in news that’s sure to please Trump, Ryan suggested that he and the House of Representatives were prepared to sue a Republican president if need be.
“I would sue any president that exceeds his or her powers,” Ryan said.
It’s unclear, however, if Ryan thinks Trump enacting a ban on Muslims entering the country would actually exceed presidential powers. “That’s a legal question that there’s a good debate about,” Ryan said, pointing to the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act.
Ryan’s declaration is bizarre considering that the Immigration and Nationality Act is clear on this issue. Section 212(f) of the federal law states:
Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate…
As the Daily Caller‘s Alex Pfeiffer has reported, all of the past six presidents have used the authority this statute provides to block certain classes of immigrants from entering the country. Temple University Law Professor Jan Ting told the Daily Caller that existing law “absolutely and without any doubt” would allow a President Trump to restrict immigration of certain nationalities or religious groups.
Ryan’s declaration that he is not giving Donald Trump a “blank check” with his endorsement is similarly remarkable considering the fact that this is exactly what Ryan gave to President Obama with his 2015 omnibus spending bill.
Indeed, at the time, Senior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby and Sen. Jeff Sessions described Ryan’s omnibus spending bill “the President’s blank refugee check.”
With his omnibus spending bill, Ryan funded President Obama’s expansion of Muslim migration– funding visas for nearly 300,000 (temporary and permanent) Muslim migrants within the course of 12 months.
Yet more significantly, Ryan’s omnibus fully funded Obama’s unconstitutional 2012 executive amnesty for illegal immigrants who allegedly entered the country as minors.
Obama’s executive action, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), granted work permits to around 700,000 illegal aliens, as well as the ability to receive tax credits and federal entitlement programs. A recent GAO report documented how this illegal amnesty program for alien youth is, in large part, responsible for the illegal alien minor surge across our southern border.
To put this into perspective, Speaker Ryan funded President Obama’s executive action to suspend and nullify U.S. immigration law– essentially allowing the President to craft his own immigration laws, the main effect of which was to increase the number of aliens entering, working, and collecting benefits inside the country– yet Ryan is now suggesting that he’ll fight President Trump if he uses the powers of the executive by enforcing U.S. law.
Ryan essentially seems to be suggesting that he would fight harder against a President who pledges to use his executive authority to faithfully execute the law than he has fought against another President using execution actions to violate the law.
It is perhaps interesting that Ryan would agree to do an interview with a publication which asserts in an editors’ note at the bottom of every piece that the nominee selected by Ryan’s Republican electorate is “a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist, and birther.”
However, Ryan has seemed to indicate support for some of these sentiments from the far-left publication. Ryan recently described the statements of his party’s standard-bearer as the “textbook definition of a racist comment.”
Ever since issuing his tepid endorsement of Trump, Ryan has made repeated declarations in high-profile media appearances that would seem to undermine the Party’s presumptive nominee.
Breitbart News has previously reported that Speaker Ryan holds functionally the same positions as Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton on some of the biggest issues of 2016 — namely both hold similar views on foreign migration, foreign trade, and foreign military engagements.
The Washington Post has similarly reported there are many major issues on which Hillary Clinton and Paul Ryan could strike a deal.
Prior to Ryan’s installment as House Speaker, Pat Buchanan wrote that the Republican Party would likely never be united under Ryan’s control because Ryan is diametrically opposed to the Republican electorate on some of the most significant issues facing the country today.
Buchanan wrote, “Ryan’s popularity and pleasant persona are not going to be able to smooth over those divisions. For they are about ideology, and about issues such as free trade and amnesty for people here illegally, where Ryan stands squarely with the establishment and against the revolt.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.