Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, says the unconstitutional granting of amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants is one promise President Obama actually intends to keep, and he says the Republican Congress must be ready to do what it takes to stop it from happening.
The day after major Republican wins in the midterm elections, Obama reiterated his vow to act alone on immigration policy. On Wednesday, he told the nation he would announce a major immigration executive action in a prime-time speech Thursday at 8 p.m. EST. While not detailing what his executive orders would entail, reports have indicated that the centerpiece of Obama's initiative would grant legal status and issue work permits to the parents of U.S. citizens and children already legalized in some way. Estimates suggest that would legalize anywhere from 4.5 to 6 million illegal immigrants.
While immigration has been a divisive issue among Republicans over the past couple of years, King said GOP lawmakers are virtually unanimous in fighting what they see as an unconstitutional power grab. He's less certain Republicans are willing to to whatever it takes to win the fight.
"I think we're really solid," King said. "Those on the Republican side that would give the president a pass for usurping constitutional authority are very few. But how far are they willing to go to block this president?"
King has been a leading voice of opposition to granting legal status to people in the country illegally. He said he can remember where he was and the disappointment he felt when President Ronald Reagan signed the 1986 amnesty into law.
The congressman said Obama's agenda is infinitely worse, and he fears the president is dead set on taking action on his own.
"The president has a very long string of broken promises, but this, I think, is going to be the promise he actually keeps. He is poised to violate the Constitution and create his own immigration law out of thin air. He has no constitutional authority to do this," said King, who believes Obama's insistence on this issue boils down to one thing.
"He thinks a high percentage of them are just undocumented Democrats, and the next phase would be to document them so that they can vote," he said.
Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa:
How does King conclude the president's actions would be unconstitutional?
"Not only does Article I set aside all legislative power to the United States Congress, but also an enumerated power is to provide a uniform rule of naturalization. That's Congress' authority, and there are multiple court cases that identify that Congress sets immigration policy," said King, who argued Obama has already flagrantly violated his authority on other decisions on immigration policy.
"He didn't have legal authority to issue the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DREAMers) memo," King said. "And he didn't have the authority to do the Morton memos, which waive prosecution for those whom the president considers not to be a violent threat to society."
Obama defenders accuse critics of the impending executive orders of employing selective outrage. They say many previous presidents have effectively removed the threat of deportation for some illegal immigrants. King admitted there is some legal discretion granted to the president on immigration matters, but he said Obama's apparent course of action takes things to a completely different level.
"The president has authority to manage asylum and to manage refugee status," he said. "That target of refugee status is something like 75,000 a year. (That's) nowhere near the five to six ... million that we would end up with. I don't think there's any comparable precedent anywhere."
King suggested America's very system of government is at stake in this debate.
"What he's poised to do is step up in front of a press conference someday in the near future, take the Constitution, separate out Article I, the legislative authority (and) all the things that set up the United States Congress, look at us all and tear Article I out of the Constitution, fold it up, put it in his shirt pocket and say, 'I'm also the legislative branch of government.' That's what he's doing," King said.
"This is a constitutional crisis that is hanging over our heads like the Sword of Damocles. Congress must block this president. It is our duty to do so," he said.
King added, "The president is holding a right hostage to an ultimatum. We have a right to secure borders, a right to expect an demand that our president enforce the law. But he's giving us an ultimatum. Congress can either pass amnesty or he's going to commit it by a constitutional violation."
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So what will the Republicans do to stop it? One thing House and Senate GOP leaders have ruled out is any sort of government funding showdown. That's a promise King wishes they hadn't made.
"We've had some leadership say there's not going to be a government shutdown," he said. "I don't know how they can declare that. It was the president that shut the government down a little over a year ago. So they can't make a promise that the president would be in charge of keeping."
King isn't eager for another showdown over appropriations, but he also isn't very impressed by some of the ideas floated by GOP leaders, either. One is simply to extend current funding levels in all areas of government until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2015.
"That would give all the funding to the president and would take away our tool to restrain him by cutting off the funding to implement or enforce his unconstitutional act," King said.
Another possibility is passing government funding at existing levels but revisiting funding for immigration enforcement in the new Congress and taking it out through a process known as recision.
"After money is appropriated, we can go in and claw it back so to speak," he explained. "That proposal overlooked the idea that a recisions bill would have to have a presidential signature."
King has already drafted a bill that would automatically cut out funding for unconstitutional immigration actions by the president, both past and future.
"It's a bill that self-enacts," he said. "If the president violates the Constitution or issues a policy that reduces immigration enforcement, it requires that he certify that it's constitutional and that it doesn't diminish enforcement. Otherwise, it automatically shuts off the funding, not only for his policy going forward, but retroactively to the DACA component and the Morton memos that are part of the beginning of this immigration constitutional crisis."
Beyond that, King is ready for whatever it takes to win the political fight.
"That might be cutting off the funding. That could be effective," he said. "Another one that we might have to do is censure the president. That's happened once before in the history of this country. That doesn't take us down the full route that Bill Clinton experienced. That would be the last resort."
The congressman stressed again the fight over executive authority versus enumerated powers for the Congress will determine the fate of America's form of government.
"This constitutional republic cannot survive if we have a president who is going to defy the Constitution and his own oath to it," King said. "Every member of Congress takes an oath to uphold the Constitution, House and Senate. We have a duty, too. That duty is to defend the Constitution."