54 GOP Reps Demand Preemptive Strike on Executive Amnesty

Dozens of House conservatives are pushing for an upcoming “omnibus” spending bill to prohibit President Obama from implementing his planned executive amnesty.

In a letter to the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), the lawmakers say an executive amnesty “would be in direct violation of U.S. law” and that “the Congress has the power of the purse and should use it as a tool to prevent the President from implementing policies that are contrary to our laws and the desire of the American people.”
As of Wednesday evening, 54 members had signed the letter, a significant number under the circumstances.

Rogers is pushing against including the language in the bill, and many top Republicans are privately advocating for Republicans to wait until Obama issues his action to act themselves.  

Read the letter:

Dear Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Lowey,

As the House continues to deliberate and draft appropriations legislation before the currentcontinuing resolution expires on December 12, 2014, we write to encourage you to includelanguage that would prohibit funding for the President’s reported intentions to create workpermits and green cards for undocumented immigrants currently in the United States.

There are currently millions of undocumented immigrants living within our borders. Recently,the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a procurement requestfor 34 million work permits and green cards over the next five years. President Obama hasspoken publicly and privately about his intentions to use executive action to create these workpermits for those who are here illegally. This would be in direct violation of U.S. law. As youknow, the Congress has the power of the purse and should use it as a tool to prevent the Presidentfrom implementing policies that are contrary to our laws and the desire of the American people.

We respectfully request that as you work to finalize the year-end funding legislation thatlanguage be included in all relevant appropriations legislation for FY 2015 to prohibit the use offunds by the administration for the implementation of current or future executive actions thatwould create additional work permits and green cards outside of the scope prescribed byCongress. We thank you for your efforts with this legislation and for your consideration of thisimportant request.