Former Gov. Jeb Bush took a swipe Tuesday at President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, accusing the president of exceeding his power and hurting efforts to find a fix.
“That’s not leadership,” Bush wrote in a Facebook posting. “The millions of families affected across the country deserve better. Now, more than ever, we need President Obama to work with Congress to secure the border and fix our broken immigration system.”
Bush‘s comments came as a Texas judge late Monday blocked -- at least temporarily -- Obama’s move to halt deportations for nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants. Obama announced the move in November, saying that the refusal of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to take up a bipartisan overhaul passed by the Senate left him no choice but to act unilaterally.
Bush, who is considering a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and viewed as the party establishment favorite, has drawn barbs from some conservatives for his support of a path to legal status for immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
And he drew criticism on Tuesday from supporters of Obama’s executive action who accused Bush of pointing fingers without offering a fix.
“It is unfortunate Mr. Jeb Bush is continuing Tea party talking points without urging Speaker Boehner and Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to come up with a solution,” said Cesar Vargas, co-director of the Dream Action Coalition, calling Obama’s move “bold leadership from an executive.”
Vargas noted that Bush’s father had taken a similar action on immigration. In 1989, the Senate passed a bill to protect children whose parents were both eligible for legalization. The House failed to act on the bill. President George H.W. Bush took executive action the next year, carrying out the Senate bill's provisions, Vargas said.
The White House has said that action covered more than 1.5 million unauthorized spouses and children.
The Department of Justice will appeal the temporary injunction, but Homeland Security Secretary Jay Johnson said the meantime, his employees “recognize we must comply with it.”
He said the department would not begin accepting requests for the expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as it had planned, and that “until further notice” it was suspending requests for the new program, known as the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents Act.
Bush’s remarks came as a group of top Republican party fundraisers pushed for an immigration overhaul in a conference call convened by the pro-business group, the Partnership for a New American Economy.
"Fixing our broken immigration system is the right thing to do," said Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants, and an economic advisor to Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. "It is time for Republicans in Congress to be leaders on this issue, secure our borders and implement conservative, free-market solutions for our immigration system."
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