Ted Cruz Wants Senate to Block All Nominees Due to Obama's Immigration Action
Outspoken Republican Senator from Texas Ted Cruz called on the in-coming Republican-majority Senate to block any presidential nominee until President Barack Obama rescinds his executive action on immigration.
In a column published by Politico on Wednesday, Cruz stated that the U.S. Senate should act to check President Obama's executive power.
"When the president usurps the legislative power and defies the limits of his authority, it becomes all the more imperative for Congress to act," wrote Cruz.
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"If the president announces executive amnesty, the new Senate majority leader who takes over in January should announce that the 114th Congress will not confirm a single nominee — executive or judicial — outside of vital national security positions, so long as the illegal amnesty persists."
Cruz added that the blocking of nearly all Obama nominees would be a way for the Senate to counter a "lawless president" via "constitutional power."
"Of course, these confrontations are not desirable, and it is unbecoming for an American president to show such condescension towards the voters," wrote Cruz.
"The American people, however, are not powerless. They have elected a new Congress full of members who have promised in their campaigns to stand up to this lawless President and stop the amnesty."
Obama announced Thursday that he was going to sign an executive order that would allow for as many as five million undocumented immigrations to gain citizenship.
The executive order allows for an estimated five million illegals to get work permits, thus preventing millions from being deported.
"Everybody agrees that our immigration system is broken. Unfortunately Washington has allowed the problem to fester for too long," stated Obama.
"And so what I'm going to be laying out is the things that I can do with my lawful authority as president, to make the system better even as I continue to work with Congress and encourage them to get a bipartisan, comprehensive bill that can solve the entire problem."
The announcement has garnered praise from several progressive and immigration reform groups while gathering criticism mostly from conservative and Republican organizations.
The Evangelical Immigration Table was split over the announcement, with Dr. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference supporting the decision.
"The President's executive action, although not the preferable delivery mechanism, initiates a reconciliatory prescription necessary in addressing a defacto humanitarian crisis within our borders," stated Rodriguez.
"This merciful action takes place because for years our government, under the leadership of both parties, failed miserably as it pertains to immigration. For years, our elected officials sacrificed lives on the altar of political expediency. For years, rhetorical articulation fell short of redemptive action."
However, Russell Moore, president of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and EIT leader, opposed the decision.
"I am for immigration reform, for all sorts of reasons that I have outlined elsewhere. The system we have is incoherent and unjust. I have worked hard to try to see the system changed, and will continue to do so," stated Moore.
"I asked President Obama not to turn immigration reform into a red state/blue state issue. I also asked him not to act unilaterally, but to work for consensus through the legislative process. Acting unilaterally threatens that consensus, and is the wrong thing to do."
Republican sources have not commented on how accepted Cruz's plan for blocking nominees is for the in-coming GOP Senate majority.
