The Emperor Has No Clothes

Washington, DC- In the hours leading up to President Obama’s speech outlining his plans to unilaterally advance immigration reform, FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe commented:

“The president’s announcements tonight have nothing to do with immigration. This fight has to do with whether or not we are a country with laws and a separation of powers designed to protect the will of the American people from the arbitrary actions of Washington insiders.”

“The president himself, who taught constitutional law as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, explained that he is ‘not the emperor of the United States, [his] job is to execute laws that are passed.’ By proceeding, President Obama is not only breaching constitutional limits on his power, he is asking every single public official who took the oath to uphold the Constitution to break the law with him.”

"The expansion of executive power under this administration has created a dangerous pattern of unilateral action that will almost certainly be abused by future presidents, regardless of party."

In an Univision 2011 townhall President Obama explained to students why executive action is an unacceptable governing strategy:

“We’ve got three branches of government. Congress passes the law. The executive branch’s job is to enforce and implement those laws. And then the judiciary has to interpret the laws. There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as President.”

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