ICYMI: Sen. Cruz: Texas Is Leading The Way To Stand Up To Obama’s Lawlessness
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today joined Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton for a press conference to present a united front among Texas leaders against the President's illegal executive amnesty.
A transcript of Sen. Cruz's remarks is below.
"Thank you Governor Abbott, thank you Lieutenant Governor Patrick. I'm very glad to be back home. This victory this week, the decision from the federal court was a major victory for the rule of law. All of us have reason to be proud that Texas led the way, standing up to President Obama's illegal and unconstitutional executive amnesty. All of us have reason to be proud that our Governor Greg Abbott, and our Attorney General Ken Paxton, led the way, standing up and fighting against lawlessness. It's worth underscoring that the federal district court order was very simple.
"It was that the President's amnesty order of November of last year was on its face illegal. The federal court looked to the President's asserted justification that it was ‘an exercise of prosecutorial discretion' and the federal court quite powerfully concluded that, that was not an accurate description of what the President's executive amnesty did because it was not simply declining to prosecute some four and a half million people who are here illegally but it was rather as the district court said, an affirmative act of issuing work authorizations that are flatly contrary to federal law. Printing up documents, in effect what the Obama administration was doing, was counterfeiting immigration documents because the work authorizations that the administration was printing are directly contrary to the plain text of federal law that says that those who are here illegally are not authorized to work.
"I want to note something additionally, which is the President this week has rightly said he's going to follow the court opinion, he's going to respect the judicial injunction that is in place, but yet also this week the President made a comment to the effect that preparations would continue ongoing to implement this illegal amnesty. It is worth noting the District Court's order was abundantly clear, the federal court enjoined any and all aspects of the illegal amnesty order. Now it's been publically reported that the Department of Homeland Security is in the process of opening new office space and hiring 1,000 additional employees in order to implement this illegal and unconstitutional amnesty, and I would note that if the Department of Homeland Security continues moving forward, that on its face is in violation of a federal court injunction against implementing any and all aspects of this order.
"One final observation: next week Congress will come back, and we have before us in Congress a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. The House of Representatives has passed funding for the Department of Homeland Security, and we should fund the Department of Homeland Security. President Obama has placed Senate Democrats in a very difficult, in fact, in an impossible position. Right now Senate Democrats are filibustering to try to kill funding for the Department of Homeland Security in order to hold DHS hostage and force the President's executive amnesty program onto the American people. That amnesty program has now been declared illegal by a federal court, so Senate Democrats should look very closely at this opinion and decide if they are willing to jeopardize national security, which is both reckless and irresponsible in order to try to hold DHS funding hostage and to try to force implementation of an amnesty order that the federal court has now concluded is illegal."
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