McCaul: No shutdown over immigration

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Sunday that Republicans won’t shut down the government over President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.

“We are not going to shut the government down, but we are going to shut down the president and his actions as it pertains to granting amnesty to five million people,” McCaul said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

Obama announced executive orders last week instructing officials to only target their deportation efforts against undocumented immigrants with criminal records.

Obama’s action also allows an estimated 5 million undocumented workers to apply for deportation delay.

McCaul said that the action “poisons the well going into a new Congress. … This is a bit of a threat to our democracy.”

“It circumvented the will of the American people, circumvented the Congress that has authority under the Constitution to make laws; his is to faithfully execute the laws, and I believe he has failed in that responsibility,” McCaul said.

Republicans have heavily criticized the actions, saying that the president is abusing presidential power. GOP lawmakers have openly discussed how they will respond, including by blocking presidential nominations and withholding funding from agencies to deter officials from carrying out the orders.