GOP, Democrats spar over legality of executive orders, as lawsuits begin

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

Democrats and Republicans sparred Sunday over whether President Obama violated the Constitution by using his executive power to change U.S. immigration law, with Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz calling the president’s actions “stunning and sad.”

 

Obama on Thursday announced that he would suspend deportation for roughly 5 million illegal immigrants, garnering support from much of his base and outrage from critics -- including two elected officials who are mounting separate legal challenges to the president’s executive actions.

 

Cruz told “Fox News Sunday” that Obama refuses to accept that only Congress has the authority to establish federal immigration laws and that members should block the president’s nominees and some funding until he rescinds his executive actions.

 

“This is a stunning and sad display by the president,” Cruz said. “We need to impose real consequence.”

 

He was joined on the show by Greg Abbott, the governor-elect of Texas, which borders Mexico and deals with many illegal immigration issues.

 

Abbott, the state’s attorney general, intends to sue, arguing the executive actions create the same financial hardships for Texas as those in 2012 that now shield from deportation more than 1 million young people brought to the United States illegally through no fault of their own.

 

“We think we have standing better than any other state to be able to assert this claim against the president,” Abbott told Fox. “We have a president who feels completely unrestrained by the Constitution of America.”

 

Sheriff Joe Arpaio, of Arizona’s Maricopa County, has already filed a similar suit and called Obama’s moves “unconstitutional.”

 

California Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra on Sunday defended Obama’s executive orders, saying they are no different than what Presidents Reagan and Bush Sr. did.

 

“He cannot change a law,” Becerra told Fox. “He can only secure them. The Supreme Court as recently as two years ago said the president has broad discretion to execute the laws.”

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He can just make up his own, apparently...

[Valin]

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Surprise: Border Crossings Surge With Obama's Legalization Announcement
Katie Pavlich

Nov 24, 2014

 

Last week President Obama announced his plan to legalize at least five million people living illegally in the United States during a primetime address to the nation from the White House. He detailed the plan again last Friday at a Las Vegas high school.

 

Just before his announcement, law enforcement officers working in and people living along the Texas border with Mexico were already seeing a surge in illegal immigration as a result. From Local ABC 5 news in the Rio Grande Valley:

 

(Snip)

 

Words cannot express how shocked I am! I mean who could possible foreseen this!