Mississippi Republicans blast immigration order

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is overstepping his authority and ignoring the wishes of voters by issuing an executive order protecting millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation, Mississippi's Republican members of Congress said Thursday.

In a nationally televised address Thursday, Obama said congressional inaction made his executive order necessary.

"The actions I'm taking are not only lawful, they're the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican president and every single Democratic president for the past half-century," he said. "And to those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill."

Obama's plan will allow undocumented immigrants who are parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to legally live and work in the country for three years. It also expands the pool of undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children who are eligible for protected status.

Mississippi GOP lawmakers said Obama is providing amnesty to undocumented immigrants and ignoring the wishes of voters who gave Republicans control of the Senate in the next Congress and expanded the GOP's majority in the House.

"There is no justifiable reason for President Obama to act alone now to allow millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the United States," Sen. Thad Cochran said in a statement. "The same pressures to secure our borders and reform our legal immigration system will exist in January when the new Congress convenes. By circumventing the legislative process now, I believe the president is making it much harder to address those problems."

"Our country has a broken immigration system that needs a real solution, not a quick fix,'' Rep. Gregg Harper said in an e-newsletter to be released today. "The president's unilateral action on immigration is not an effective, long-term solution to our broken system, and it will set back the American peoples' goal to move forward with effective and accountable solutions."

Harper also questioned why Obama didn't make similar moves when Democrats controlled the House and Senate or before this year's midterm elections.

"The common denominator to both questions is because President Obama knew the American people opposed it, and he did not want his fellow Democrats to be held accountable at the polls," Harper said.

Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance, called Obama's plan a "long time coming."

"We're glad that he's finally taking this administrative action," he said. "We believe that this is a critical part of addressing the trauma in immigrant communities, especially given the makeup and mood of Congress."

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the lone Democrat in Mississippi's congressional delegation, applauded Obama's effort, calling it a "bold step" to begin changing "the broken immigration system."

"This action, similar to those taken by previous presidents, is simply the right thing to do in the wake of inaction by Congress," said Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee.

Thompson, however, said the plan should have included agricultural workers.

Chandler said he's not surprised by the criticism from Republicans and said Republican Rep. Steven Palazzo, who previously served in the state Legislature, has co-authored some "very vicious anti-immigrant bills."

Palazzo said Americans are "fed up" with Obama.

"President Obama is not a dictator, not a king, but an elected president bound by the Constitution of the United States," he said. "Yet, he continues to push his own personal agenda of overreaching, unwanted policies with a reckless disregard for the will of the American people."

Mississippi Republicans joined others in threatening congressional action to undo Obama's actions.

Sen. Roger Wicker, recently elected to head the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that beginning next year, "The new Republican Congress will look to use the power of the purse and the judicial system to rein in this executive overreach. No president has the authority to act unilaterally in this manner, something that the courts will surely determine."

Alan Gomez of USA Today contributed to this report.

Contact Deborah Barfield Berry at dberry@gannett.com. Follow @dberrygannett on Twitter.

Sen. Thad Cochran:

"There is no justifiable reason for President Obama to act alone now to allow millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the United States."

Rep. Steven Palazzo:

"President Obama is not a dictator, not a king, but an elected president bound by the Constitution of the United States. Yet, he continues to push his own personal agenda ... with a reckless disregard for the will of the American people."

Sen. Roger Wicker:

"In the coming months, the new Republican Congress will look to use the power of the purse and the judicial system to rein in this executive overreach."