Political Quotes

“I hope both sides consider the fact of what has happened over the last year or two. The fact is that this amendment is here before us because we have an extraordinary situation that has happened in certain local communities and States where the Federal Government has actually intervened and filed lawsuits based on the fact that the administration felt that local communities being involved in the enforcement of Federal immigration law was somehow encroaching on the ability of the Federal Government to enforce the law when, in fact, if you read their statement against a State like Arizona, the encroachment was not because they were enforcing some new law or some off-the-wall approach, but the fact that they were enforcing the law. In fact, in the case of Arizona, it said that Arizona's enforcing of immigration law infringed on the ability or prerogative of the executive branch not to enforce the law at any time the executive branch chooses. Now, I think, as legislators--Democrats and Republicans--but most importantly as Americans, we need to stand up for the fact that the executive branch is here to enforce the law, not to pick which laws to enforce and which ones to ignore. We make the laws, Mr. Chairman, not the White House. We make the laws that the White House is supposed to be enforcing. Sadly, we have seen in the last few years the executive branch claiming the right to choose which laws to enforce and which laws not to enforce.…”