The
Goose and the Gander … other side of the coin …
To
GOP, Obama’s immigration orders were ‘executive overreach.’ What is it when
Trump does it?
The Capitol in
Washington is seen early Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, on the first full week for
members of Congress to work with President Donald Trump. Trump is meeting with
congressional leaders from both parties to discuss his agenda. J. Scott
Applewhite AP
BY CURTIS TATE
PHILADELPHIA
President Donald
Trump took executive action on immigration Wednesday while Republican lawmakers
met for their retreat 150 miles away in Philadelphia. And they loved it.
Yet many of the same
GOP lawmakers condemned President Barack Obama when he exercised his executive
power on immigration in 2014. One of their chief complaints about Obama is that
he acted on immigration, the environment and other matters without consulting
Congress.
The two executive
orders that Trump, a Republican, signed Wednesday would begin construction of
the U.S.-Mexico border wall he promised during his presidential campaign, and
strip funding for “sanctuary cities” that do not prosecute immigrants in the
country illegally.
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“For years, Americans
have demanded that Washington do its job and secure our borders,” said Rep.
Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
“Today, President Trump took bold action to finally make it happen.”
McCaul had a very
different view of Obama’s 2014 actions that the White House then characterized
as a crackdown on illegal immigration at the border. He also expanded a program
that allowed immigrants in the U.S. illegally who’d come as children to stay in
the country and work, as well as protecting the undocumented parents of U.S.
citizens from deportation.
“The president’s
decision to bypass Congress and grant amnesty to millions of unlawful
immigrants is unconstitutional and a threat to our democracy,” McCaul said at
the time. “There is no doubt our immigration system is broken and needs to be
fixed, but this does not mean the president has the authority to act without
Congress.”
Congressional
Republicans are spending three days in Philadelphia this week discussing their
2017 agenda. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are scheduled to meet with the
lawmakers Thursday.
Other lawmakers who
had protested Obama’s methods, insisting he was bypassing Congress, were eager
to support Trump’s orders on Wednesday.
“I am pleased with
President Trump’s actions to secure our southern border and improve immigration
enforcement,” said Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. “I congratulate President Trump
for reversing the disastrous policies of the prior administration and making
good on his promise to keep America safe.”
In 2015, Labrador
said Obama had provoked “a constitutional crisis” by circumventing Congress.
“The House defended
its constitutional authority to make the law of the land in today’s vote to
oppose President Obama’s unconstitutional executive actions on immigration,”
Labrador said then of a vote to block Department of Homeland Security funding
for enforcement of Obama’s policy.
Susan Phalen, a
spokeswoman for McCaul, said Trump’s actions were legal, while Obama’s were
not.
“President Obama’s
executive orders were designed to either circumvent or break existing laws,”
she said. “President Trump’s executive orders are designed to enforce existing
laws.”
Trump could still
face challenges from his own party in trying to go much further. Some
Republican lawmakers have pushed the idea of restoring the primacy of Congress
in policymaking, no matter who’s in the White House.
“The authors of the
Constitution intended Congress to be first among the federal government’s three
co-equal branches,” says a description of the Article I
Project, led by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. “Congress was meant to be the driving
force in federal policymaking.”
While Trump had been
in office only five days, some fissures were already showing between the president
and Republican lawmakers. They’re expected to become more apparent Thursday, as
the congressional retreat continues.
Amid reports Wednesday that Trump
planned to sign another executive order reviewing interrogation policies for
terrorism suspects, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former prisoner of war in Vietnam
who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, made clear where he’d draw the line.
“The president can
sign whatever executive orders he likes,” McCain said. “But the law is the law.
We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America.”
Trump had defended
the CIA’s harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects, including waterboarding,
practices that McCain and others consider torture.
Could Republicans
break with Trump on his executive actions?
“The question is, are
they enforcing the law? Are the moving in excess of the law? Are they doing
things they don’t have the statutory authority to do?” said Charlie Dent, a
Pennsylvania Republican who opposed Trump’s nomination last year.
“When they take these
executive actions that exceed the statutes,” he said, “well, then we’ve got a
problem.”
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