President Barack Obama announced executive action on immigration reform last week, but Republican leaders from Oklahoma don’t want millions of undocumented citizens to gain access to work, pay taxes and come out of the shadows.
Rep. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City, told Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday that it’s not immigration he has a problem with. He said his beef is with illegal immigration.
“And for the president to step up and say, ‘I’m just going to remove the word “illegal”’ and to be able to transition this and ignore the law, a lot of people have a problem with that, Republicans and Democrats alike,” said Lankford, who has been critical of the president’s actions on immigration. “The American people really do believe in the rule of law.”
He’s not the only Okie who disagrees with Obama, either.
“He had plenty of opportunity to do things when he had complete Democratic control ... so it’s been a political weapon rather than a problem to be solved in my view from the president’s standpoint,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, told ABC’s This Week. “I think he’s actually trying to bait us into doing some of these extreme things.”
But Cole said he’s against a government shutdown as a means to achieve his party’s wishes.
“It’s an inappropriate weapon, inappropriate tool,” he said.
Obama responded to Republicans in his own interview on ABC’s This Week.
“Well, my response is pass a bill,” Obama said in an episode recorded on Friday. “Congress has a responsibility to deal with these issues, and there are some things that I can’t do on my own.”
