WASHINGTON — Sen. Mike Lee made the following remarks regarding his opposition to the confirmation of Sarah Saldaña, President Obama’s nominee to be Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mr./Madam President, I rise in opposition to the nomination of Sarah Saldaña to be in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the Department of Homeland Security.
As we know, the President has recently announced that he will take unilateral executive action on immigration. In so doing he has circumvented the democratic process, broken the law, and subverted the constitutional order. It is incumbent on every member of this body — no matter what their politics, or what immigration policies they would prefer to enact — to oppose that usurpation of legislative power and to defend the rule of law.
Fulfilling that duty leads me to oppose Ms. Saldaña’s nomination to be ICE director. Although I respect her and her record of public service, including an admirable independent streak as United States Attorney, she has also demonstrated that her commitment to the rule of law may falter when it comes to faithfully enforcing the Immigration and Nationality Act. In response to a question asked by several members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, including me, Ms. Saldaña said she agreed with the position of DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson that immigrants who entered the country illegally, and have now been targeted for so-called deferred action, have “earned the right to be citizens.
That’s quite a bold claim. No doubt Congress could, and many people think it should, ease the path the citizenship for some aliens here unlawfully. But to assert that citizenship is a matter of right, and that it has been earned by the very act of breaking our immigration laws, is an unacceptable view for a person nominated to be head of immigration enforcement. …
We have passed through the looking glass. And to see how far we’ve gone inside, observe: Today the President asks the Senate to install, as custodian of our border, a person who evidently believes that crossing our border illegally earns you the right to vote. The Constitution gives the Senate the responsibility to give the President advice about his executive nominations, and ultimately its consent. My advice is this: The President should not proffer a nominee for the job of executing our immigration laws who affirmatively supports subverting them. But that is exactly what he has done, so I cannot and will not give my consent.”
Submitted by the office of Sen. Mike Lee
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Simpering blowhard.
Simpering douchebag. How much did Lee cost taxpayers with the shortsale of his home?
Well we could always hold a fundraiser and get our money back. LOL.!
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But, Mike Lee, you left out the rest of the story. Because of you and Ted Cruz, Ms. Saldana WAS confirmed in the waning hours of the last Congress. She, along with about two DOZEN other nominees who had been held up by Congress, WERE ALL confirmed because of your petty rant.
By the way, I heard that Ted Cruz apologized to his fellow Republicans for the mess he made. Did you, as his minion, apologize as well?
We’re so tired listening to this whimpering and whining about everything. What’s this about uni-lateral decisions? Don’t you realize that your own party will soon control both houses of Congress? Or are you so use to complaining about everything that you don’t realize that you can actually do something. Of course taking action is a lot more work than complaining.
Well then why are you here complaining.?
Ed. ellipsis
What about the guns that Obama took, Senator Lee?
Who voted for this party-liner anyway? Has he ever voted independently of what his party wanted? Senator Lee and his party had many years to come up with a plan for illegal immigrants who have now lived in this country for many years as productive people. They came up with nothing. Of course, he is ready to demonize anything Obama does. What else is new? So predictable. So sad Utahns continue to vote for this.