Georgia US Congressmen, Senators weigh in on President Obama’s executive action on immigration reform

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Georgia U.S. Representatives and Senators are weighing in on President Barack Obama’s announcement to use executive action on immigration reform.

The president addressed the American people Thursday night with his plan to fix the immigration system. The executive order eases the threat of deportation for about 4.7 million undocumented immigrants.

U.S. Senators Johnny Isakson (R) and Saxby Chambliss (R) released the following statement:

“President Obama continues to circumvent Congress by executive order. This is the wrong way to govern. Bottom line, any attempt to circumvent Congress and grant legal status to millions is unacceptable. We must stop the President from executing bad policy and will consider all legislative and legal options when determining the best course of action to do so.”

Congressman Austin Scott (GA-08) said in a statement:

“President Obama’s decision to act unilaterally on immigration is the latest example of his arrogance and indifference to the laws of this country. He talks about fairness and justice, about character and responsibility, yet he ignores the U.S. Constitution and the pledge he swore to uphold it. The President himself has earlier stated that, by taking this action, he would be ‘ignoring the law in a way that I think would be very difficult to defend legally.’”

Senator-elect David Perdue weighed in on the president’s executive amnesty announcement:

“President Obama’s proposed executive action on amnesty is an outrageous abuse of power. Georgians sent a clear message in the most recent election: they want Washington to work again. They don’t the President playing politics and sidestepping Congress on important issues like immigration. They want security first and enforcement of current laws. They don’t want amnesty and open borders. Let’s not forget, the President purposely delayed this unilateral action until after Election Day for political purposes. As part of the new Senate majority, I will fight to hold the Obama Administration accountable when they overstep their authority and work through Congress to fix our broken immigration system with step-by-step reforms, not sweeping actions that don’t solve the underlying problem.”

41NBC also reached out to Congressmen Sanford Bishop (GA-02) and John Barrow (GA-12) for their statements on the president’s executive action. We have not heard back from them.

Mr. Obama outlined his plan which will now focus on undocumented immigrants who are threats to the nation’s security and not on mothers who are working hard. According to the plan, undocumented immigrants in the U.S. for more than five years would be able to apply to stay in this country temporarily without fear of deportation under certain circumstances.