Several Republican members of Congress have made threats to impeach President Barack Obama if he issues an executive action on immigration.
“To me a constitutional question means that we have the option of impeachment,” Rep. Walter Jones (R-North Carolina) said, according to Breitbart News.
He said the move is the best to counteract an Obama executive order on amnesty for immigrants.
“We have a constitution, and I am very disappointed from year to year that we do not follow the constitution. To me, if you think the president has violated his trust of office, meaning with the American people, then follow the constitution,” Jones said.
Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer fanned the flames, also saying that an executive action on immigration is “an impeachable offense.”
“If the circumstances were different, if we were at the beginning of a presidency, if we hadn’t had years when the Congress has been supine and unresponsive at other grabs of their authority by the executive–like Obama unilaterally changing Obamacare after it was passed about 30 times with no response from the Congress–the same as Obama essentially re-writing some of the drug laws,” he told Fox News.
“This idea of prosecutorial discretion is really a travesty. It is intended for extreme cases. For a case where you want to show mercy for an individual or two where it’s unusual incident, unusual circumstances and you say, okay, we’re going to give this person a pass. It was never intended to abolish a whole class of people subject to a law and to essentially abolish whole sections of a law. And that’s exactly what’s happening here,” Krauthammer added.
On Wednesday, Obama warned that he'll take actions he feels necessary to “improve the function of our immigration system.”
The executive order, first reported on by The Associated Press, could allow as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants to stay in the country without facing any deportation procedurs.
Mother Jones noted that several Republican lawmakers have issued statements they would consider impeaching Obama over the move.
“[Obama] either enforces the laws on the books—as he was hired and elected to do—or he leaves Congress no option… This is not our choice, this is the president’s choice and I would advise him to uphold the law on the books,” Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) said.
Added Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas): “For all I know, Obama is preparing to process five million illegal immigrant kids and teenagers into the United States… He wants us to impeach him now, before the midterm election because his senior advisers believe that is the only chance the Democratic Party has to avoid a major electoral defeat. Evidently Obama believes impeachment could motivate the Democratic Party base to come out and vote.”
Meanwhile, Democrat members of Congress have noted that some will want to introduce impeachment legislation.
“There will be some reason found to introduce an impeachment resolution,” Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina) told MSNBC on Tuesday. “These Republicans have decided that this president must have an asterisk by his name after he leaves office, irrespective of whether or not he gets convicted. It is their plan to introduce an impeachment resolution.”
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