Six red-state attorneys general are warning the Biden administration they will take legal action if he oversteps his authority to implement radical and wide-ranging agendas, including the rollback of immigration rules.
The six attorneys general, Patrick Morrisey (WV), Ken Paxton (TX), Austin Knudsen (MT), Lynn Fitch (MS), Todd Rokita (IN), and Leslie Rutledge (AR) signed the letter addressed to President Joe Biden, highlighting concerns over the tone he has set in his early days in office by signing a flurry of executive actions, besting the pace of all his predecessors.
The officials noted that Biden’s first week “appears to indicate” that his administration “may be following the unfortunate path of executive unilateralism” and warned that they will take action in the event of “cabinet officials, executive officers, and agencies” moving beyond their authority. The Republicans listed specific issues that may arise — from the administration attempting to implement the “extreme ‘Green New Deal'” agenda to “tearing down immigration statutes” via “executive fiat.”
“Overreaching and defying Congress will not be rewarded or succeed. Our States have led the charge in successfully challenging unauthorized and unlawful executive actions, as you know from your years as Vice President,” they warned. “You can be assured that we will do so again, if necessary”:
Whether it be directing a wide swath of federal agencies to exceed their limited statutory mandates to implement the extreme ‘Green New Deal’ agenda that Congress has not enacted, making transformative changes to our healthcare system that were specifically rejected in passing the Affordable Care Act, strong-arming businesses into changing practices to adhere to unreasonable and twisted interpretations of long-extant statutes, having the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve conjure up massive boondoggle spending sprees without congressional authorizations and appropriations, usurping the authority of the States to protect local streams, or tearing down immigration statutes passed by Congress by executive fiat, we will not hesitate to defend America against illegal executive actions.
“When Presidents do not take care to ensure that executive agencies live up to their obligation of reasoned decision making, the task often falls to us as State Attorneys General to challenge their actions in court,” they continued.
“While we would rather you keep agencies from running amok in the first place, we will not hesitate to step up to the plate when our States are harmed by agency malfeasance,” they added:
2021.01.27 Letter — Presid… by Fox News
The letter comes as Biden breaks records in terms of executive actions in the early days of his presidency. Revoking former President Donald Trump’s constitutional 2017 travel ban, thereby resuming immigration from countries known to harbor terrorists, was one of the first executive actions Biden took upon assuming office last week:
Biden signed executive actions terminating Trump’s orders declaring a national emergency on the Southern border to fund the construction of a border wall, rescinding the exclusion of non-citizens from the census, ending the “Remain in Mexico” policy for refugees, and suspending most deportations for 100 days.
Biden also released a bill to give amnesty to all illegal immigrants in the United States.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden’s immediate focus on immigration as a broader approach to fighting for “racial equity.”
Further executive actions on immigration currently face delays, according to a Thursday report from Fox News. Even so, Democrat lawmakers are seeking to recruit Republicans to join their amnesty-driven agenda.
This week, dozens of progressive House lawmakers sent a letter to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, demanding future coronavirus relief measures to include recurring payments that extend to those who may be residing in the country illegally.
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