House GOP takes symbolic vote against Obamas immigration actions
House Republicans took a symbolic vote Thursday to approve a bill that states President Barack Obama does not have the authority to defer the deportation…
House Speaker John Boehner joined his Republican colleagues in the House on Thursday to vote for a bill that rejects President Obamas executive actions on immigration. The vote was largely symbolic, because it doesnt lead to any legislative changes. (Photo by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
House Republicans took a symbolic vote Thursday to approve a bill that states President Barack Obama does not have the authority to defer the deportation of certain categories of undocumented immigrants.
The bill, dubbed Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act, was approved by a vote of 219 to 197. It declares the presidents recent actions on immigration null and void and without legal effect.
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But this bill introduced by Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) is largely meant to send a message, because it doesnt do anything to undo the executive actions Obama has taken. It also wont be taken up for a vote in the Democratic-led Senate, and the White House already issued a statement indicating Obama would veto the bill. Still, House Speaker John Boehner urged the Senate to take this bill up and pass it.
Meanwhile, other Republicans pushed for the passage of the bill as a way to vent their frustration with the president for taking executive actions that seek to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation and allow them to work legally. They accused Obama of executive overreach and referred to his actions as blanket amnesty.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, called Obamas recent move on immigration one of the biggest constitutional power grabs ever by a president.
He has declared unilaterally that by his own estimation more than four million unlawful immigrants will be free from the legal consequences of their lawless actions, Goodlatte said on the House floor. Not only that, he will in addition bestow upon them gifts such as work authorization and other immigration benefits.
With these remarks, Goodlatte initiated a one-hour debate on the House floor over Yohos bill.
Speaking on the House floor, Rep. Luis Gutierrez compared the executive actions Obama took on immigration to those Reagan took. (Screenshot)
The debate became heated when Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) used a cutout of former Republican President Ronald Reagan to argue that other presidents have taken similar actions on immigration.
Reagan took executive action on immigration shortly after Congress approved and he signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986. The new law created a path to legislation for up to 3 million undocumented immigrants but excluded their spouses and children.
SEE ALSO: Goodlatte says Obama clearly exceeded his constitutional authority
Gutierrez noted that in response to this, Reagan used his executive authority to defer the deportation of those spouses and children who were excluded from the 1986 immigration bill.
He protected them. He used his presidential power to do that, and he wasnt called a tyrant and he wasnt called lawless, Gutierrez said. He was doing the right thing, protecting the siblings and spouses of those that would be granted legalization under that law that Congress expressly excluded.
And you want to know something, he continued, Im happy that President Barack Obama is following in that great and proud tradition set forward by President Ronald Reagan, that he would rather put families first, and the demagoguery and any anti-immigrant policy always last.
Goodlatte countered Gutierrezs arguments, saying Obamas actions are very, very, very different than what President Reagan did. He said Reagan first signed a bill into law that Congress passed and then took action to fix some things that he didnt think were correct.
The scale of Mr. Obamas move goes far beyond anything his predecessors attempted and without legislation that had been passed, Goodlatte said. This is a power grab of enormous proportions. It is unconstitutional.
But Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) insisted that Obamas recent executive actions were similar to the ones Reagan took. She pointed to a 1990 memorandum that stated 1.5 million undocumented immigrantsor 40 percent of the undocumented population at the timewould be granted deferred action under Reagans executive actions. She said thats the same percentage of the current undocumented population who will benefit from Obamas executive actions.
I would recommend that people take a look at the documents, and they will see that what President Reagan did is almost exactly the same as what President Obama did, Lofgren said.
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