King: Obama’s DREAM Act Executive Order Violates Constitution

Washington, DC – Congressman Steve King released the following statement today in response to President Obama’s plan to grant amnesty to an estimated 1 million illegal aliens through an Executive Order implementing the policies of the DREAM Act legislation that Congress has rejected.

“Americans should be outraged that President Obama is planning to usurp the Constitutional authority of the United States Congress and grant amnesty by edict to 1 million illegal aliens,” said King. “There is no ambiguity in Congress about whether the DREAM Act’s amnesty program should be the law of the land. It has been rejected by Congress, and yet President Obama has decided that he will move forward with it anyway. President Obama, an ex constitutional law professor, whose favorite word is audacity, is prepared to violate the principles of Constitutional Law that he taught.

“The American people have rejected amnesty because it will erode the Rule of Law. In much the same way, I believe the American people will reject President Obama for his repeated efforts to violate the Constitutional separation of powers.”

The End Justifies the Means

Mark Krikorian,

The White House decision to enact the DREAM Act through executive fiat is a lawless act. This isn’t even about immigration; it’s about the Constitution.

I have repeatedly written that something like DREAM has much to recommend it, though it would need to be very different from the current iteration, which has been voted down in Congress several times. I understand that Sen. Marco Rubio has finally put together a final version of his alternative bill and that Senators Kyl and Hutchison have signed on — from my discussions with his staff, I probably won’t like what he’s come up with, but unless there are typos in my version of Article I of the Constitution, that’s the way lawmaking is supposed work. For all the administration’s pious denials that this measure “confers no substantive right” and “Only the Congress, acting through its legislative authority, can confer these rights”, they’re lying. The illegal immigrants in question will receive two-year renewable permits to live legally in the United States and an Employment Authorization Document — that, in English, is what we call “amnesty”.

Any DREAM Act supporter who applauds this measure has forfeited any right to complain about future usurpation of the Constitution. Even backers of DREAM in Congress have a responsibility to deny funding to DHS to carry out this policy.