“Arrogantly, the President refuses to listen to the legitimate concerns of hurting Americans. He dismisses them, and supported by his palace guard in the United States Senate, he pushes on to advance the interests of immigration activists, political consultants lusting after votes for the next election, and big business interests lusting after lower wage labor.
I am going to make a prediction. Their voices will be heard. No longer, in secret, will the legitimate wishes of good and decent Americans be denied. The people’s voice will be heard. The day of the special interest operatives, tone deaf politicians, and those with the loudest voices will end. This time the American people will get what they rightly demand… They will force the self-interested forces out of the seats of power….”
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) delivered the following prepared remarks while on the Senate floor regarding Senate Democrats’ decision to protect the executive amnesty many of them campaigned against:
“Mr. President: We have talked at length about the President’s executive action and how he is unlawfully, unconstitutionally making law – when only Congress can make law. We have shown that the law he has created is law that he proposed and Congress specifically rejected. We have shown that, the President himself has, at least 20 times, said he did not have the power to take this action – rightly declaring he is not an “emperor” and that Congress makes the laws.
So now, Senator McConnell has moved to bring up the House passed legislation that fully funds all the lawful aspects of the Department of Homeland Security but simply bars the President from spending any money to execute executive directions that are in violation of law. It stops the Department of Homeland Security from outlaw activity. This is a matter of great constitutional importance.
It is, in addition, a matter of great importance to working Americans. What the President is doing is giving lawful status to over 4 million adults – persons who entered our country against the law or came in on visas and illegally overstayed.
These persons cannot be hired by any business or employer under current law. But the President wants (them) to work any way. Congress considered and rejected this plan. The result is that the President’s plan will be a further kick in the teeth to down and struggling American workers. The facts are clear. I have not seen them disputed:
· Median family income since the recession (2007) has declined almost $5,000. This is a catastrophic event. Such a decline is unprecedented since the Great Depression, over 80 years ago. While some say jobs and wages are recovering and we can stop worrying, the facts show otherwise. In addition to depressed incomes, America has the lowest percentage of the population working in nearly 40 years.
· Consider this. There were huge worker layoffs during the 2009 recession and many more had their hours reduced as a result of Obamacare.
· There are other factors that combine to reveal that job and wage conditions are much worse than the unemployment rate would indicate.
Despite these severe problems, a slow economy, job killing automation, and low wages, the President is carrying out his unlawful plan, rejected by Congress, that would give 5 million persons, unlawfully here, legal status, a Social Security number, a photo ID, and the right to take any job available in America. His policies are in perfect accord with those of his nominee for Attorney General, Loretta Lynch. When I asked her this simple question last week, I got a surprising answer:
Q: Who has more right to a job in this country? A lawful immigrant who’s here, or citizen – or a person who entered the country unlawfully?
A: I believe that the right and the obligation to work is one that’s shared by everyone in this country regardless of how they came here. And certainly, if someone is here, regardless of status, I would prefer that they would be participating in the workplace than not participating in the workplace.
This was a moment of inadvertent candor.
Let’s be clear. These 5 million persons, with their new government issued documents, will be able to apply for, and take any of the few jobs now available in the economy. Sadly, the problem in America is not too few workers but too few jobs. Last year, the administration celebrated the creation of over 2 million jobs. The President’s actions would create, from unlawful immigration, over twice that many workers in his one single amnesty act. Millions more Americans who lost jobs during the recession still haven’t found work today.
Is this the right thing to do? I don’t think so and neither do the American people – by a wide margin. But, arrogantly, the President refuses to listen to the legitimate concerns of hurting Americans. He dismisses them, and supported by his palace guard in the United States Senate, he pushes on to advance the interests of immigration activists, political consultants lusting after votes for the next election, and big business interests lusting after lower wage labor. Businesses, who have become so transnational that their interests and those of American workers are often incompatible.
President Obama supports these business interests. Who represents the interests of the dutiful American citizen and the lawful immigrant who followed the rules? Who is speaking out for them? They are the ones that are forgotten.
I am going to make a prediction. Their voices will be heard. No longer, in secret, will the legitimate wishes of good and decent Americans be denied. The people’s voice will be heard. The day of the special interest operatives, tone deaf politicians, and those with the loudest voices will end. This time the American people will get what they rightly demand – the protection of the laws already on the books. They will force the political class to end the massive lawlessness and to produce an immigration system that serves the national interests, not the special interests. They will force the self-interested forces out of the seats of power and demand policies that protects their wages, their jobs, their national security, and their government budgets.
The good people of this country have been pleading for such action for 40 years. Presidents and Congresses have responded with repeated promises for strong action but have never delivered. Always the special interests have won out. Not this time. The demands of the people are right and just. They want what is best for all Americans – lawful immigrants and native born.
They will prevail. Even if the Democrats succeed in their filibuster that would fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, that only blocks the unlawful executive order riders placed on DHS bill by the President – open borders, amnesty, more and more labor, and taking even more risks to national security from terrorism will be defeated. The doom of this agenda is sure.”
