Jeff Sessions: ‘Congress Has the Power to Block’ Obama’s ‘Unlawful’ & ‘Dangerous’ Executive Amnesty

Jeff Sessions: ‘Congress Has the Power to Block’ Obama’s ‘Unlawful’ & ‘Dangerous’ Executive Amnesty
Tony Lee

On Thursday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) said Congress must use the powers that is has to block President Barack Obama’s forthcoming unlawful executive amnesty.

Obama will make his executive amnesty announcement on Thursday evening and Sessions, in an appearance on Bill Bennett’s radio show, said the announcement will be “devastating” and would put the country on a “dangerous, dangerous” path 
Sessions, who has led the charge against Obama’s executive amnesty and massive amnesty legislation, said it will take “considerable sums of money to provide IDs, work permits and legal status” to millions of illegal immigrants. And he emphatically stated that Congress can use its power of the purse to block it. Sessions also noted that Congress can pass a bill subject to Obama’s veto that would bar Obama from enacting his amnesty.
“Congress has the power to block this,” Sessions declared. “Congress can fund programs it deems worthy and not fund those that it does not… It should fund the government of the United States but not fund this kind of unlawful scheme.”
Sessions said that Obama, who is expected to make a prime-time announcement in which he will grant executive amnesty to as many as five million illegal immigrants, is violating the “the heart and soul of American immigration law” with his “unlawful” executive order. Further, Sessions said it would be “unthinkable” for Obama to shut down the government over his executive amnesty if Congress did prohibit Obama from spending funds to enact his amnesty.

After mentioning that he has been a prosecutor for a long time, Sessions said that Obama’s amnesty is “devastating” because law “requires consistency to have a moral foundation.” He said it is dangerous for liberals to believe that “laws don’t mean anything and we can make laws say what you want them to say.”

“What about the 7 million others who are here [and won’t be covered by Obama’s executive amnesty]?” Sessions asked. 

He said since “it’s the people’s Congress,” the American people need to hear from lawmakers that they are willing to “not fund unlawful executive orders like this” because the responsible thing to do is “manage the people’s business wisely and fairly.” 

“It’s irresponsible to acquiesce to the destruction of the constitutional order and the rule of law in America,” Sessions said. “We don’t want this fight, didn’t want this fight… the president’s pressed this upon us and we have to develop a clear and responsible message and firmly reject it.”

He mentioned that in the midterm elections, voters sent a clear message by rejecting Obama’s amnesty proposals. A Polling Company exit poll found that 74% of voters in the midterms did not want Obama to enact an executive amnesty. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released this week found that a strong plurality (48%) of voters disapprove of Obama’s executive amnesty.

“There’s no doubt… that the American people elected a Congress that is stronger and more committed to ending the lawlessness on immigration than the one that sits now,” Sessions said, noting that is one reason why Obama is so determined to act now.

He said Obama, who Sessions said is supposed to be enforcing and executing laws instead of “undermining” them, could not justify this “overreach of monumental proportions legally and politically.” Sessions noted that four Democrats joined him in a procedural vote before the midterms to block Obama’s executive amnesty and said more Democrats may join Republicans to deny the White House funding to implement Obama’s amnesty.

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