On the recordMarch 17, 2016
The issue in this case actually implicates the very existence of the House. The law is the reason we exist. We do not exist to pass ideas or to pass suggestions. We make law with the corresponding expectation that that law will be enforced, respected, and executed. We do so because the law is the thread that holds the tapestry of this country together. It is the most unifying, equalizing force that we have. It makes the rich respect the poor, and it allows the powerless to challenge the powerful. Attempts to undermine the law, Mr. Speaker, regardless of the motivation, are detrimental to the social order. In 2014, President Obama declared unilaterally that almost 5 million unlawful immigrants would receive deferred action under some tortured definition of ``prosecutorial discretion.'' I can't help but note the word ``discretion'' means sometimes you say yes, and sometimes you say no. But, of course, the administration has never said no. The Court found not a single time has the administration said no. So that is not prosecutorial discretion, Mr. Speaker. That is lawlessness. You may like what the President did. I take it from some of the speakers that they do, and you may actually wish what the President did was actually law. You may wish--Mr. Speaker, you may wish that when Democrats controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House for 2 years that they had lifted a finger to do a single, solitary thing about what they are talking about this morning.…
