Virginia Foxx: “I thank my colleague for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, young children are being sent off alone or put in the hands…”

“I thank my colleague for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, young children are being sent off alone or put in the hands of criminal cartels to cross vast, inhospitable spaces in the hopes of eventually reaching our border. This is a humanitarian crisis. Today we seek to address the plight of these children in a responsible fashion. There has been much discussion in the House this week about constitutional role. The President has acknowledged his constitutional role in immigration policy. In 2011, speaking to a meeting of La Raza, he said: I swore an oath to uphold the laws on the books . . . Now, I know some people want me to bypass Congress and change the laws on my own. Believe me, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting, I promise you, not just on immigration reform. But that's not how our system works. That is not how our democracy functions. That's not how our Constitution is written. If the President's actions had remained consistent with these words, we would not be facing the crisis we are today. Unfortunately, though, the President did take it upon himself to unilaterally rewrite immigration law, and he did so in a way that aggravated the situation. And he knew the potential consequences.…”