Coburn: ‘You could see violence’ after Obama immigration order

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.) is warning that President Obama’s imminent executive action on immigration could spark violence.

“The country’s going to go nuts. Because they are going to see it as a move outside of the authority of the president. And it’s going to be a very dangerous situation,” the retiring lawmaker told USA Today in a video posted Thursday. “You’re going to see — hopefully not — but you could see instances of anarchy.”

{mosads}”You could see violence,” Coburn continued. “This is a big step, to not work with Congress, now that he’s got a new Congress, to go completely around it.”

Coburn cited the protests in Ferguson, Mo., over the police shooting of a black teenager, saying that the immigration action could invoke similar concerns about injustice.

“Well here’s how people think — If the law doesn’t apply to the president, and it’s not affirmatively acted on for us as a group, like you’re seeing in Ferguson, Mo., then why should it apply to me?” Coburn told USA Today.

The president in a Thursday evening primetime address is expected to announce executive actions that would defer deportations for millions of illegal immigrants.

Many conservatives are outraged about the unilateral actions, accusing the president of overstepping his authority and referring to him as an “emperor.”

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on Wednesday said the president is “throwing this nation into a crisis.” On Friday, King and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) will reportedly travel to the southern border to talk about the executive actions.

Both lawmakers are among a handful of Republicans who have also floated the possibility of impeachment if Obama moves acts alone on immigration.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama wore GOP criticisms on executive action “with a badge of honor.” 

“We’ve heard this kind of rhetoric about lawlessness from House Republicans for some time,” Earnest said Wednesday.

“The glue that holds our country together is this common belief in the rule of law,” Coburn added in an interview on MSNBC on Thursday, again citing Ferguson.

“We see the things that are going on in Ferguson and the worries there about whether or not it’s equally applied,” he added. We shouldn’t be doing anything right now to shake that worse. That’s my No. 1 concern.”