BY: PETE KASPEROWICZ
IN THE HILL
"Last week, the president decided to grant amnesty and hand out work permits to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, while over 23 million Americans remain unemployed and the civilian participation rate is at a 30-year low," he said Monday. "This amounts to an abdication of duty to the American people who are struggling in this economy.
"Instead of working with Congress to secure our border and reform our immigration policy, President Obama sought to circumvent Congress once again."
"President Obama and Secretary Napolitano’s decision to end the enforcement of many of our nation’s immigration laws is stunning in both its arrogance and shortsightedness," Quayle said. "This end-run around Congress was a direct rebuke to the principle of three co-equal branches of government outlined in our constitution and more broadly, our entire system of laws."
Quayle’s bill is cosponsored by Reps. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Tom Graves (R-Ga.), Billy Long (R-Mo.), Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), Reid Ribble (R-Wis.), and Dennis Ross (R-Fla.).
On Friday, Obama said the DHS would immediately allow people who don’t pose a national security risk to ask for temporary relief from deportation proceedings and apply for work authorization. While Schweikert’s bill would prevent DHS from enforcing executive orders on immigration, Obama’s policy change came only in the form of a memo on prosecutorial discretion from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, not an executive order.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and other Senate Democrats welcomed the move, and Reid said the decision is appropriate in large part because Congress has been unable to act on immigration reform.