McConnell vows ‘Congress will act’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday used President Obama’s own words while arguing the president doesn’t have the authority to make executive orders on immigration law.

“ ‘Democracy is hard,’ he said during a commencement speech in Miami three years ago. ‘But it’s right. Changing our laws means doing the hard work of changing minds and changing votes, one by one,’ ” McConnell said on the Senate floor Thursday. “I couldn’t agree more with the president’s statement.”

{mosads}Later Thursday, Obama is expected to announce an executive order to issue nearly 5 million work visas to immigrants, many of whom have children who are U.S. citizens. The administration has said this action is legal and necessary because the House failed to take up Senate-passed immigration reform.

“It will make an already broken system even more broken, and he knows this is not how democracy is supposed to work because he told us so himself,” McConnell said. “If President Obama acts in defiance of the people and imposes his will on the country, Congress will act.”

McConnell said his party is considering “a variety of options.” Some House Republicans have suggested holding up a government spending bill that would keep the government open after Dec. 11. They have called for language to be included that would prevent the president from implementing the executive action on immigration.