Politics

White House: Only Thing GOP Can Do To Stop Obama Amnesty Plan Is Pass Senate Immigration Bill [VIDEO]

Al Weaver Reporter
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What can leaders of the GOP do to stop President Barack Obama’s threat of executive action legalizing millions of illegal immigrants? According to the White House, they need to pass the Senate’s bipartisan immigration bill.

During the White House briefing Friday, press secretary Josh Earnest said that Senate bill is the only thing holding back Obama’s executive action giving amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, which he intends on signing before the calendar turns to 2015.

Earnest made the comments during a back-and-forth with ABC’s Jon Karl, who pressed Earnest, wondering why the White House won’t even discuss backing off this plan of attack before new GOP leadership takes control in January.

JON KARL: Now that the election has happened, Democrats got trounced almost across the board, and we’ve heard from the Republican leadership now, saying “it’s poisoning the well, it’s playing with matches, it’s waving a red flag in front of a bull.” Given that its the Republican leadership basically pleading with the president not to do this, why not listen to them and put it off for a little while and at least talk to them first?

JOSH EARNEST: There’s been ample opportunity for Republicans to work with Democrats to correct some of those problems [with the immigration system], in a way that has significant benefits for our economy… Senate Republicans took up that challenge, worked with Senate Democrats, passed a piece of legislation through the Senate that represented a common sense offering of reforms.

Speaker Boehner, despite strong bipartisan support in Washington D.C. and across the country for that piece of legislation and in the House in which he is the leader, has declined to bring that bill up for a vote. The simple question before the White House and the president himself is is the president going to use the authority that he has under the law and under the constitution to take some steps that would be good for the American people, and the simple answer that is yes. That’s what he’s going to do and he’s going to do it before the end of the year.

KARL: But Josh, everything you just said about immigration is something you could have said, and in fact did say, many times before the election. There is a new reality in this town though. Republicans won a big victory, they are now firmly in charge on Capitol Hill, and they are pleading with you to take a little time to work with them before doing what is a very provocative action here. Changing the legal status of millions of people without any congressional action is an unprecedented use of executive power in the area of immigration.

EARNEST: The speaker of the House did a news conference, not unlike the one we’ve convened here, and he was asked directly if he would commit to bringing up immigration reform any time soon, and he declined to do so, so it’s hard to take seriously this suggestion that Republicans actually do want to work with the president to pass immigration reform. But, for the virtue of our consistency, they’d been remarkably consistent in obstructing common sense, bipartisan efforts to reform our immigration system that everybody acknowledges is broken… I’m surprised frankly that Republicans would suggest, for some reason, that the president shouldn’t [sign the executive order].

KARL: Just to be clear…you’re saying that the president, even before he’s had a chance to have his first meeting with the new Republican leadership… even before he’s had the chance to sit down and talk to them about it, he’s completely closed to the idea of delaying this executive action? Not even willing to talk to them about delaying this?

EARNEST: He’s going to take that executive action before the end of the year, but there is — Speaker Boehner and the other members of the House leadership will be arriving at the White House with a trump card up their sleeve. There is one thing they can do to prevent the president from taking executive action. The thing they can do is allow that common sense, bipartisan bill passed by the Senate to come to the floor of the House of Representatives. And if the House passes that Senate bill, the president won’t take executive action…. Certainly, the United States of America would benefit significantly from them taking that step… Even if they decide not to take those steps that are in the best interest in the country, the president’s not going to miss that opportunity.