Democrats to President Obama: We stand with you against 'deceitful, mean-spirited and partisan attack' of the HALT Act

July 22, 2011

Rep. Johnson signs letter Opposing Judiciary Chair’s Bill to Limit President’s Immigration Enforcement Powers

Democratic Members of Congress held a press conference to release a letter to President Obama expressing their support for him and opposition to the HALT Act (H.R. 2497), a bill authored by Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) that will be the focus of a Judiciary Committee hearing on July 26.

“Not only does the legislation Mr. Smith introduced do nothing to reform our immigration system, but it is a blatant attack on President Obama’s use of executive power.  

Why create such a blatantly partisan bill that expires at the end of his current term? Why does the bill single out this President? This is nothing more than an attack on the President’s integrity that should not go unnoticed or unopposed.

“First the Republicans denied our promising young students a path to citizenship by rejecting the DREAM Act and now they give us this cynical bill designed only to derail the progress made by the President and this country on this critical issue?

“The United States of America is a nation built by immigrants. We stand on the side of law-abiding immigrants and must have comprehensive immigration reform. We will not be distracted by this purposeless bill. It’s pure politics at its worst.”