Six Republican Senate leaders wrote to Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) today offering to help him block Pres. Obama’s planned executive order granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens.
The Republicans offered to help Reid pass a measure that would avoid a “constitutional crisis” by “blocking any action the President may take to violate the Constitution and unilaterally grant amnesty.”
If Reid refuses “to defend the Senate and Constitution,” the Republicans say they’ll use “all procedural means necessary” to stop the president’s “lawless amnesty.”
“Surrendering to illegality is not an option,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), one of the Republicans writing to Reid, said in a separate statement. Echoing the letter to Reid, Sessions said a now-Republican Congress will take action – and Democrats will have to choose between defending their constituents and supporting Obama:
“A Republican Congress will defend itself and our citizens from these lawless actions. Surrendering to illegality is not an option. Democrats will have to choose sides: protect the President's agenda, or protect your constituents.”
The full text of both the Republican letter and Sen. Sessions’ statement follow (emphasis added):
Senator Harry Reid
Majority Leader
S-221, The Capitol
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Leader Reid:
We write to express our alarm with President Obama’s announced intention to take unilateral executive action by the end of this year to lawlessly grant amnesty to immigrants who have entered the country illegally. The Supreme Court has recognized that “over no conceivable subject is the power of Congress more complete” than its power over immigration. Therefore, President Obama will be exercising powers properly belonging to Congress if he makes good on his threat. This will create a constitutional crisis that demands action by Congress to restore the separation of powers.
As majority leader of the Senate, you have the responsibility of not only representing the voters of your State, but also of protecting the Constitution through vigilant exercise of the checks and balances provided under the Constitution. Therefore, we write to offer our full assistance in ensuring expeditious Senate debate and passage for a measure that preserves the power of Congress by blocking any action the President may take to violate the Constitution and unilaterally grant amnesty; however, should you decline to defend the Senate and the Constitution from executive overreach, the undersigned Senators will use all procedural means necessary to return the Senate's focus during the lame duck session to resolving the constitutional crisis created by President Obama's lawless amnesty.
Sincerely,
Ted Cruz (R-Texas)
David Vitter (R-La.)
Mike Crapo (R-Idaho)
Mike Lee (R-Utah)
Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)
Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)
Statement by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama):
“Last night, the American people rebelled against the President's executive amnesty and rallied behind GOP candidates who promised to put the needs of the American people first. It is shocking then that the President would declare that the only way ‘those executive actions go away,’ is to ‘send me a bill that I can sign.’ Otherwise, the President warned, he would ‘act in the absence of action by Congress.’
“Of course, Congress has acted, and so have the American people. Republicans, and the voters who sent us here, rejected the Obama-Democrat legislation to give work permits to illegal immigrants and to surge already-record immigration rates. The President cannot, having had his policies defeated at the ballot box, impose them through executive decree.
“A Republican Congress will defend itself and our citizens from these lawless actions. Surrendering to illegality is not an option. Democrats will have to choose sides: protect the President's agenda, or protect your constituents.
“Americans do not want their borders erased. What they have asked for is an agenda that promotes higher wages, reforms government, eliminates failed programs, balances the budget, increases energy production, and protects their sovereignty.”