Boehner Omits Immigration from Lawsuit Against Obama's 'Unilateral Actions'

On Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) left out immigration in a draft resolution that authorized the House of Representatives to sue Obama for having “unilaterally changed the employer mandate” in the Obamacare law.

“In 2013, the president changed the health care law without a vote of Congress, effectively creating his own law by literally waiving the employer mandate and the penalties for failing to comply with it,” Boehner said. “That’s not the way our system of government was designed to work. No president should have the power to make laws on his or her own.”

On June 25, Boehner sent a memo to House colleagues on the separation of powers to preview his lawsuit, and he did not mention immigration then either.

“On matters ranging from health care and energy to foreign policy and education, President Obama has repeatedly run an end-around on the American people and their elected legislators, straining the boundaries of the solemn oath he took on Inauguration Day,” Boehner wrote, conspicuously leaving out immigration.

Boehner mentioned that “Article II, Section III of the Constitution of the United States dictates that the president, as head of the Executive Branch of our government, ‘shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed,’ even if the president does not agree with the purpose of that law.”

“Under the Constitution’s separation of powers principle, only the Legislative Branch has the power to legislate,” Boehner wrote. “On one matter after another during his presidency, President Obama has circumvented the Congress through executive action, creating his own laws and excusing himself from executing statutes he is sworn to enforce – at times even boasting about his willingness to do it, as if daring the America people to stop him.”

“Presidents have traditionally been granted a degree of latitude with respect to the enforcement of the law, and tension between the branches of our government is hardly new,” Boehner wrote. “But at various points in our history when the Executive Branch has attempted to claim for itself the ability to make law, the Legislative Branch has responded, and it is only through such responses that the balance of power envisioned by the Framers has been maintained.”

Boehner said if Obama “can selectively enforce, change or create laws as he chooses with impunity, without the involvement of the Legislative Branch, his successors will be able to do the same,” which would give “the president king-like authority at the expense of the American people and their elected legislators.”

“Everywhere I go in America outside of Washington, D.C., I’m asked: when will the House stand up on behalf of the people to stop the encroachment of executive power under President Obama?” Boehner wrote. “We elected a president, Americans note; we didn’t elect a monarch or king. It is only through strong action by the House in response to provocative executive action by the Executive Branch in the past that the separation of powers intended by the Framers has been preserved.”

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, saying that Boehner was bringing a lawsuit to a gunfight, implied that the best way to check Obama was through impeachment.

“It’s time to impeach; and on behalf of American workers and legal immigrants of all backgrounds, we should vehemently oppose any politician on the left or right who would hesitate in voting for articles of impeachment,” Palin wrote in an op-ed for Breitbart News. “The many impeachable offenses of Barack Obama can no longer be ignored. If after all this he’s not impeachable, then no one is.”

Palin said Obama’s lawlessness on immigration was the “tipping point” for her to call for impeachment. When asked about Palin’s call for impeachment on Wednesday, Boehner said, “I disagree.”

Obama has not only unilaterally enacted the temporary amnesty program for certain DREAMers, but has selectively not enforced other immigration laws while threatening to ease deportations and award more temporary amnesty and work permits with more executive actions this summer.

Obama’s actions and words have contributed to the current border crisis, with migrants saying they came to America believing they would be granted amnesty if they made it across the border.