Congressman-Elect Zeldin Statement on President Obama's Immigration Announcement

Statement

Congressman-Elect and New York State Senator Lee Zeldin released the following statement regarding President Obama's Immigration Executive Order Announcement:

"I strongly condemn the President for ignoring the will of the American voters who sent a strong message on Tuesday, November 4th with their vote. Americans are outraged over Washington dysfunction and believe our country is not headed in the right direction. For this President's first act post-election to be so grossly unconstitutional and confrontational shows that he either has not gotten the memo that voters sent Washington or he does not care.

This action also sets a very disturbing precedent for future abuse and overreach of power. This is not acceptable. He is the President of the United States and Presidents are permitted to sign Executive Orders, however, he is not permitted to do so if he is in all practical application subjugating authority that rests solely with the legislative branch in Congress. The President and Congress must not ever imagine that each holds each other's place in a system of two separate and distinct branches of our federal government.

I am all for legal immigration. We are a nation of immigrants with people from all over the world coming to America legally to pursue the American dream, hope, opportunity and a better way of life for themselves and their families.

The new Congress has not even been sworn in yet. President Obama must suspend his decision to implement his new Executive action. Meanwhile, Congress should press forward in negotiating solutions that will improve border security and stop the flow of illegal immigrants to our country. This must be the first step. Then through our legal immigration process, further solutions should be discussed to help reduce the amount of people who are here illegally. It is wrong to hold hostage any component of this debate that has near unanimous support in order to solve every last challenge we face in one bill. It's time to start moving forward with any measurable amount of progress, which would be a significant improvement over the past when Congress could only run in place. As for executive amnesty it is bad public policy, is unconstitutional, ignores the will of voters, and subjugates Congress.

The President's plan to grant amnesty will only worsen the immigration crisis our country faces by encouraging even more people to come to our country illegally, bypassing our legal system, in the hopes of being granted amnesty once they arrive.

This past week, while I was in Washington, DC for freshman orientation, I spoke with incoming members from both parties. We are all ready to join together to find common ground to move our country forward. It's time for the President to also listen to the American people, and join us in solving problems. Ignoring the Constitution, heightening confrontation with Congress and disregarding the will of the American people to impose amnesty is wrong."

Source