By Kasim Ileri
WASHINGTON
A congressional Republican leader said Friday that his party will not stand idle against President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration policy.
"President Obama has turned a deaf ear to the people that he was elected and we were elected to serve," said House Speaker John Boehner during as press conference. "In the days ahead, the people’s House will rise to this challenge."
In a prime time televised address Thursday night, Obama said that he would take executive actions on U.S. imigration policy to protect from deportation five million undocumented immigrants living in the county.
Under the president’s plan, those who entered the country without proper documentation but have lived in the U.S. for at least five years, and whose children are either U.S. citizens or lawful residents, can apply to stay in the U.S. "without fear of deportation." That will require applicants to register, pass a background check, and pay their "fair share of taxes."
Boehner acknowledged that the U.S. immigration system is broken, "but fixing it starts with a commitment to working through the democratic process and enforcing the laws that the president is sworn faithfully to execute,” he said, but added that the Republican-controlled House is looking at options that are available to act.
"The president repeatedly suggested that he was going to unilaterally change immigration law, and he created an environment where the members would not trust him. And trying to find a way to work together was virtually impossible," he said.
By taking action on immigration policy, Obama has refused to listen to the American people, Boehner said.
"The president has taken actions that he himself has said are those of a king or an emperor, not an American president," he said.
The Republican challenge to the president’s latest action is another dispute in a series of seemingly endless fights between the two parties.
A day after Obama announced his intention to move unilaterally on immigration reform, House Republicans filed a lawsuit against two Cabinet members over the health care law claiming the president abused his executive authority.
The lawsuit accuses the heads of the Health and Human Services and Treasury departments of unlawfully postponing a requirement in that law for companies with more than 50 employees to offer health coverage to its full-time employees or pay penalties.
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