{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://roe.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=397790", "Roe Statement on President Obama's Executive Action on Immigration", "2014-11-20", "2014", "2014-11", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Phil Roe", "R000582", "roe.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Tonight, Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-TN) released the following statement after President Obama\u2019s announcement he would take executive action on immigration reform:\r\n\u201cThe president\u2019s unilateral action on immigration reform is outrageous. In October, the President rightly noted that he wasn\u2019t on the ballot, but his policies were, and the American people sent a clear message on November 4th they wanted a different direction. Tonight\u2019s action makes clear that the president has no interest in working with Republicans in Congress to find common ground on any substantive issue, and instead intends to go it alone.\r\n\u201cThe president himself has made the case throughout his presidency that he doesn\u2019t have this authority. As Speaker Boehner noted, President Obama has said 22 times that he couldn\u2019t legally do exactly what he\u2019s announced he will do tonight. In February of 2013, when discussing this exact executive action, the president stated, \u2018The problem is that I\u2019m the president of the United States, I\u2019m not the emperor of the United States.\u2019\r\n\u201cThe administration points to President Reagan\u2019s executive action in the 80\u2019s as setting precedent for this kind of executive action, but the difference was that in 1986 Congress explicitly authorized immigration reform first. Furthermore, the fact we have more than 11 million illegal immigrants in this country today \u2013 less than 30 years later \u2013 proves what we did in the 80\u2019s didn\u2019t work. A Band-Aid didn\u2019t work then, so we shouldn\u2019t expect it to work now.\r\n\u201cPresident Obama has clearly prioritized his political legacy over the will of the American people and effective governing. As I\u2019ve said before, we can\u2014and should\u2014take steps to reform the immigration process, starting with fully securing the border. But the president\u2019s attempt to rewrite immigration law from the Oval Office is the wrong solution, not to mention a smack in the face to every naturalized citizen that earned their legal right to live in this country.\u201d", 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://roe.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=397790"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.0337910391390324, "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"}