WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain dismissed House Republican concerns that if they passed immigration reform, President Barack Obama would not enforce the parts he did not like, calling the notion “ludicrous.”
“Then we should pass no laws,” he told reporters Tuesday. “We should pass no laws. We should all go home, save the taxpayers money, and not do anything. If that’s the logic, that Obama won’t enforce the law if we pass it, then pass no laws.”
“It’s ludicrous to say that,” he said. “I mean, if the president doesn’t enforce laws, we have ways to go to court and force him to, or her, to enforce laws. So I mean, of all the reasons I’ve heard in opposition to immigration, that’s the one that has no validity whatsoever.”
McCain was a member of the “Gang of Eight,” and one of the architects of the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed in the Senate last month. The House is now working through its own version of immigration reform legislation, which Republican leadership has repeatedly said will done in a piecemeal fashion and will focus on border security.
As the House slowly moves through its process, Republicans have expressed concerns that the president simply would not enforce legislation if he did not like it.
“There’s a lot of skepticism about the administration and their willingness to enforce any law that’s passed,” Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole said earlier this month, after House Republicans held their first full conference meeting on the topic of immigration.