Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is targeting President Obama’s executive amnesty by offering companion legislation in the Senate to a bill from Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) that the House approved last week.
Paul’s “Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act of 2014,” an aide tells Breitbart News, would block Obama’s executive actions by prohibiting the president from exempting large categories of people from immigration law except in the event of a humanitarian need.
It would also prevent Obama from using his executive orders to evade current immigration law.
“I believe that the Constitution is clear that the legislative power resides in Congress,” Paul said in a statement. “The President is not a king and he does not have the power to enact laws then execute his own laws. Our Constitution is being violated by this executive order and other actions by the Obama Administration to govern by executive fiat.”
Last week Yoho’s bill passed 219-197. It was the first step in House Leadership’s process of taking on Obama’s executive amnesty — which includes providing nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants legal status and work permits. Despite the effort, some conservatives criticized the vote as being merely for show — or worse.
The second step in House GOP leadership’s strategy is set to take place next year — the government funding bill the House passed Thursday night did not defund Obama’s executive amnesty but instead kicked the issue into the next Congress.
The so-called cromnibus funds most of the government through September 2015, but only funds the Department of Homeland Security, which is charged with implementing the order, into February. Leadership has declined to say how it will take on the executive actions in 2015, only that it plans to put up a fight.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he would not bring the Yoho bill up in the Senate for a vote.
The Senate is slated to vote on the cromnibus in the coming days.
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