Earlier this week, President Barack Obama announced he would take executive action on immigration reform, and congressional leaders in Colorado reacted in partisan form.
Obama’s unilateral action is based on four principles: strengthening border security, streamlining legal immigration, providing a pathway to earned citizenship and cracking down on employers that hire undocumented workers.
“Together we can build a fair, effective and common sense immigration system that lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants,” Obama said in a White House press release.
According to the statement, the president’s plan would require undocumented immigrants to pay taxes, learn English, and undergo background checks before becoming eligible to earn citizenship.
Republican Rep. Scott Tipton dismissed the presidential announcement, blaming Obama for refusing to take action when Democrats controlled both the House and Senate in 2012. Tipton added that the president had now decided to “implement overreaching executive orders to politicize the issue rather than fix the problems with the system.”
“This is a disservice to the American people and sends the wrong message to those who are in line going through the immigration process legally,” Tipton said in a press statement.
Democrat Sen. Mark Udall instead blamed the Republican-controlled House for refusing to consider a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill passed earlier this year by his colleagues in the Senate. He welcomed the president’s decision to take executive action; adding the president’s proposal would “stop tearing apart law-abiding immigrant families.”
“This common-sense and badly needed step will ensure the federal government focuses on deporting criminals and people who pose a safety threat to our communities or our national security — not families seeking a better life,” said Udall in a press statement.
Defeating Udall’s bid for re-election, Republican Senator-elect and current House member Cory Gardner said he was “incredibly disappointed” in the president’s decision, which could result in future legal challenges. He stopped short of any threats of a government shutdown, an argument raised by some on the far-right.
“(Obama) had an opportunity to work with a new Congress in January to enact meaningful immigration reform, but this announcement has severely undermined what little trust remains between the legislative and executive branches,” Gardner said in a press statement.
tbaker@cortezjournal.com