{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://roby.house.gov/column/obamas-amnesty-unconstitutional-harmful-unfair", "Obama's Amnesty Unconstitutional, Harmful, Unfair", "2014-11-24", "2014", "2014-11", "Republican", "House", "AL", "Martha Roby", "R000591", "roby.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "As President Obama was set to address the nation on his immigration plans, I had hoped he would commit to executing the law faithfully, just like he swore an oath to do as president. Instead, we heard the opposite.\nHe announced that he would take unilateral, executive action to grant status and work permits to as many as five million illegal immigrants. To put it in perspective, that\u2019s more than the population of Alabama.\nThis development is troubling on a number of levels. First, it is a blatant overreach of executive authority. Article I of the Constitution gives Congress, not the President, authority to \u201cestablish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.\u201d Unfortunately, President Obama believes he is above the law - above our Constitution - and that he alone can rule this country. That ideology is not just wrong, it\u2019s dangerous. Every American who believes in our system of checks and balances ought to be very concerned.\nSecond, executive amnesty isn\u2019t going to fix our immigration system as the president suggests. It will break the system even further by inviting even more illegal immigrants to cross our borders and by poisoning any progress Congress might make toward real, lasting immigration reform.\nFinally, granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants is fundamentally unfair. It is unfair to those who have played by the rules and immigrated to the United States legally. It is unfair to working Americans whose wages are undercut by condoning this lawlessness. This action erodes the very rule of law we depend on to protect our rights and ensure fairness.\u00a0\nDespite President Obama\u2019s ill-advised decision, the American people need to know that Congress is working to make it right. We are currently looking at ways to stop the president before he does permanent damage to this country.\nI\u2019m against offering amnesty to illegal immigrants. I believe our first order of business on immigration must be to truly secure the border. And I will fight to ensure American taxpayers aren\u2019t forced to pay for the addition of millions of illegal immigrants to the rolls of our assistance programs.\nCongress is going to fund the government, but we are not going to endorse or enable President Obama\u2019s unconstitutional amnesty.", 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://roby.house.gov/column/obamas-amnesty-unconstitutional-harmful-unfair"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9734649211168289, "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"}