{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://kelly.house.gov/press-release/rep-kelly-condemns-president-obama%E2%80%99s-unilateral-action-immigration", "Rep. Kelly Condemns President Obamas Unilateral Action on Immigration", "2014-11-21", "2014", "2014-11", "Republican", "House", "PA", "Mike Kelly", "K000376", "kelly.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Rep. Kelly: \u201cPresident Obama has no right to act like a king\n\tjust because democracy doesn\u2019t go his way\u201d \nWASHINGTON, DC \u2014 U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA) issued the following statement today in response to President Obama\u2019s unilateral action on immigration.\n\u201cLast night\u2019s announcement by the president was 100 percent about politics, not about the best interests of the nation he\u2019s supposed to serve. Unilaterally granting amnesty to 5 million illegal immigrants is not just a slap in the face to the millions of people waiting in line to come here legally, but also to our constitutional system. It sets a dangerous precedent that reduces Congress to a merely ceremonial institution. If this action were truly so urgent, then President Obama would have pushed it through the lawful legislative process when his party controlled both chambers of Congress. Instead, he did nothing because he knew the American people simply do not want this. In fact, on at least 22 previous occasions the president himself denounced the sort of executive overreach that he is now committing.\n\u201cPresident Obama\u2019s repeated justification that \u2018Congress won\u2019t act\u2019 is not just pathetic and erroneous, but also chilling. It\u2019s the sort of excuse one hears from a power-grabbing autocrat, not an American president. In our system of government, Congress makes the laws and the president enforces them\u2014period. Having once been a constitutional law professor, it\u2019s stunning that President Obama refuses to understand this. Even when the House and Senate act \u2013 or don\u2019t act \u2013 in a way that the president disagrees with, it doesn\u2019t change the fact that the legislative branch \u2013 not the executive branch \u2013 is where our laws are created. President Obama has no right to act like a king just because democracy doesn\u2019t always go his way.\u201d\n\u201cI stand with my colleagues in the House of Representatives in complete objection to this radical overreach and am ready to support whatever action must be taken in order to restore integrity to our nation\u2019s laws and Constitution.\u201d\nNOTE: On August 1, 2014, Rep. Kelly voted for H.R. 5272, which would ban the use of taxpayer funds for the expansion of President Obama\u2019s deferred action for illegal aliens. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 216-192 with bipartisan support.\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://kelly.house.gov/press-release/rep-kelly-condemns-president-obama%E2%80%99s-unilateral-action-immigration"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4892928302288055, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}