WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama should use his executive power to order immigration reform despite Republican threats, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said Wednesday.
“I join with my colleagues in urging the president to take action,” he said, “And I urge my Republican friends to understand that that action would be temporary and can be replaced with a bill that we pass through the Congress of the United States.”
At a news conference on Capitol Hill, Hoyer was surrounded by lawmakers from states including California and Arizona and flanked by veterans, some of whom have had family members deported while serving. Hoyer said that his father, who came to this country from Denmark, gained U.S. citizenship from serving in World War II.
The day after this year’s midterm elections, Obama made his plans regarding executive action on immigration clear.
“Before the end of the year, we’re going to take whatever lawful actions I can take that I believe will improve the functioning of our immigration system, ” the president said. “What I’m not going to do is just wait.”
In 2012, Obama issued the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals executive action, which allows those who were brought into the country as children to stay in the U.S.
The administration has not made clear what any future executive action might be taken, but one possibility is to extend DACA’s protections to more people.
Less controversially, Obama could issue a memo instructing officials to focus deportation efforts more on those who have committed serious crimes and less on those who have committed minor offenses. Currently, the administration prioritizes the deportation of anyone with a criminal conviction, no matter how minor.
Whatever form any executive action may take, odds are good that it will anger Republican lawmakers, potentially damaging any prospects for future cooperation.
Republicans have responded to Obama’s plans with intense metaphors.
House Speaker John Boehner said executive action on immigration reform would amount to “poisoning the well” and that President Obama was “playing with matched” and likely to get “burned.” Sen. Mitch McConnell, soon to be the Senate majority leader, said the threat of executive action was like “waving a red flag in front of a bull.” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said that an executive order on immigration would be like throwing kerosene on a fire, and a “nuclear threat.”
Hoyer says that if Republicans refuse to cooperate, they will have to face the consequences with voters.
“To say that if [Obama] does something that’s within his power, and that he believes is good for the country is going to therefore lead our Republican colleagues to not cooperate in order to make the country better and more economically secure, I think is not what the American people want.”
If President Obama decides to go forward with the executive action, it will be before January.