Today, Rep. Candice Miller (MI-10), Vice Chair of the House Homeland Security Committee and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, issued the following statement after the President announced executive action to grant amnesty to millions of immigrants illegally residing in the United States:
"There is no question that our system of immigration is broken and needs to be fixed, starting with securing our borders. But, President Obama's action today to provide amnesty to millions of people residing in our country illegally goes far beyond the powers granted to him in our constitutional system of government and should not stand.
"When discussing this issue in January of 2013, President Obama himself said, "the problem is that I'm the President of the United States, I'm not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute the laws that are passed.' In fact, President Obama has stated publicly on 22 separate occasions that he lacked the authority to take the action he took today. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives the authority to Congress, "to establish a uniform rule of naturalization' and Article 2, Section 3 states the President, "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.' With this action, the President has usurped role of Congress to make the law and violates the President's responsibility to make certain the laws are faithfully executed.
"The truly unfortunate fact for those who want to fix our immigration system is that, by taking this action, the President has further eroded the trust of the American people and their representatives in Congress that he can be counted on to follow the laws that are passed which makes finding a workable and permanent solution much more difficult.
"The President's actions today have a complete disregard not only for our Constitution, but also for the will of the people expressed at the ballot box just weeks ago. I find it simply unbelievable that someone who is supposed to be leading and uniting our nation would take an action which guarantees further political division and disruption. Going forward, Congress will use all of the powers granted by the Constitution, including the power of the purse, to find solutions.
"The President has decided to cause a political crisis instead of working with the Congress to find common ground and a solution that will secure our borders and strengthen our immigration system. We, in Congress, will also not let this provocation distract us from moving forward on other important issues on behalf of the American people, including reforming our tax code to get our economy moving, establishing a national energy policy to grow jobs and lower costs, removing regulatory red tape that stifles new job creation, and making certain that our nation is secure. That is the agenda the American people want, and we will continue to advance that agenda."