WASHINGTON, November 19 (Sputnik) — US President Barack Obama's plan to take executive action on immigration reform threatens the US constitutional system of separation of powers and would only be a temporary solution for immigration challenges, Republican members of Congress told Sputnik.
"It's primarily an issue of the separation of powers and checks and balances [in the US Constitution]," Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis told Sputnik Tuesday, referring to Obama's planned executive action to reform the US immigration system. "He cannot make law himself. And what he's purporting to do is essentially vitiate the law as it exists."
DeSantis added that allowing Obama to take the responsibilities of the legislative branch will send the United States "down a road that is probably not in our nation's best interest."
Revising US immigration law through an executive order would only be a temporary fix which would only last two years through the end of Obama's term, Arizona Congressman Matt Salmon told Sputnik.
"I think every group out there that wants a permanent solution to immigration reform needs to encourage the President to not settle for fool's gold," Salmon noted.
Issuing an executive order "would be a tragic mistake" and "a poison pill" that would ensure immigration reforms are not made law by Congress, Salmon argued.
In his first press conference after the 2014 US mid-term elections, President Obama repeated his position that he would do everything he can lawfully do through an executive action to improve the immigration system.
The US Senate passed an immigration reform bill in June 2013, but it has not been taken up by the House of Representatives. The Senate bill would provide a path to legalization for more than 11 million unauthorized immigrants currently living in the United States.
