Congressional Republicans are expressing outrage and anger. They argue that, by bypassing the House and Senate on immigration, Obama is exceeding his executive authority and acting unconstitutionally. This is likely to be the story line about Obama for his remaining two years in office. He has served notice that he will use his executive authority as often as possible to circumvent Capitol Hill because majority Republicans are blocking his agenda.
In a national address Thursday, Obama announced that he will use his unilateral powers to widen temporary protections against deportation for an estimated 5 million people who entered the United States illegally. "The actions I'm taking are not only lawful, they're the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican President and every single Democratic President for the past half century," Obama said. "And to those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill." In short, Obama challenged opposition Republicans to overrule his actions through legislation if they oppose his ideas, rather than doing nothing.
Obama said his plan is neither mass amnesty nor mass deportation: "What I'm describing is accountability--a common-sense, middle-ground approach: If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you're a criminal, you'll be deported. If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up."
The reaction from Republicans was ferocious. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a news release, "By ignoring the will of the American people, President Obama has cemented his legacy of lawlessness and squandered what little credibility he had left."
"The president is blatantly ignoring the rule of law and Congress' constitutional role," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told reporters.
The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, taken when news organizations were widely reporting Obama's intentions on immigration, found that 48 per cent of Americans opposed the president taking executive action to overhaul the immigration system and 38 percent approved, even though most Americans endorsed a path to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants.
Despite their opposition, Republicans haven't united behind a way to stop the president's immigration plans. Some legislators favor using the appropriations process to limit his ability to act by cutting off money for various aspects of his immigration program, but the GOP strategy is still being formulated.
Republican National Committee officials said Obama's announcement represented a massive flip-flop. These officials pointed out numerous times in the past when Obama has said he didn't have the power to unilaterally reform the immigration system. On Oct. 25, 2010, he told Univision, "I am president. I am not king. I can't do these things just by myself. We have a system of government that requires the Congress to work with the Executive Branch to make it happen. I'm committed to making it happen but I've got to have some partners to do it." And on March 28, 2011, Obama told a town hall meeting sponsored by Univision, "With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that's just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed."
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