On last night’s “Justice,” Judge Jeanine Pirro slammed President Obama for taking “thuggish, illegal” executive action on immigration reform, calling it a “deliberate, unrestrained, irresponsible and unprecedented defiance of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.”
“And so, with this new amnesty, who should I feel more sorry for? Which is the bigger inhumanity? The people who come here illegally and are forced into the shadows by their own actions? Or those hardworking Americans who have to pay the price for your presidential overreach?” Judge Jeanine asked.
“This is not about the audacity of hope, Mr. President, this is about the tenacity of your lawlessness, the imbalance of your moral code and the imposition of your political agenda.”
Watch her fiery opening statement above and read the full transcript below.
Tonight – immigration.
“The problem is that you know I’m the President of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States. My job is to execute laws that are passed, and Congress right now has not changed what I consider to be a broken immigration system.” – President Obama on Feb. 14, 2013
“With respect to the notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that’s just not the case, because there are laws on the books that Congress has passed.” – Obama on March 28, 2011
“Congress passes the law. The executive branch’s job is to enforce and implement those laws. And then the judiciary has to interpret the laws.” – Obama on March 28, 2011
He insisted that he lacked power to act on immigration without Congress on at least 12 occasions. But this week:
“There are actions I have the legal authority to take as president – the same kinds of actions taken by Democratic and Republican presidents before me – that will help make our immigration system more fair and more just.” – Obama on Thursday
More fair and more just? Mr. President – your actions are so far beyond what other presidents have done
5 million? This is not prosecutorial discretion. It is deliberate, unrestrained, irresponsible and unprecedented defiance of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.
As a former constitutional law professor, I don’t have to remind you that Congress has exclusive authority to enact laws and that you are only one of three separate but equal branches of government.
And you don’t even have the popular sentiment behind you. Almost half of Americans disapprove of your executive action. You want to change a law? How about you get both houses of Congress to agree?
And stop with the smug Tony Soprano like threats. You’re so arrogant that instead of giving the new Congress a chance to pass a fair immigration law – you just do your own thing.
But I have to give you credit. Within two weeks of an historic political shellacking – your thuggish, illegal move has cornered Republicans. They now must act or suffer political consequences.
In 2012, after you announced your Dreamers policy for young people, we saw an influx of almost 100,000 from Central America.
No surprise, historically every action on amnesty – without securing the border – creates another surge of illegals.
But most important – you skirt the issue of what your actions will do to hardworking Americans.
You say our immigration system is broken and that we can’t afford it anymore. Mr. President – pray tell – what exactly can we afford?
You say these immigrants will not be covered by ObamaCare. However – the courts make clear that we must provide medical assistance to anyone who presents himself at a hospital.
New York alone will now be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in added health care costs for the estimated 300,000 undocumented New York workers
Now, all these illegals will get a social security number. Four million will now get work permits.
Now, if they cannot find a job, they’ll be entitled to unemployment – right?
With over 47 million Americans on food stamps – we need to invite non-Americans to the table?
And by the way, how will these undocumented workers prove they meet your five-year minimum residency requirement? Can we expect to see an increase in identity crime? The creation of fraudulent documents to satisfy your five-year requirement?
Will those who have received temporary amnesty be able to vote? It would certainly be easy in states where your Justice Department has fought tooth and nail to prevent the requirement of a photo ID.
And you say that only law abiding, hardworking immigrants will be granted temporary amnesty, but do you even know who they are?
In this most recent tidal wave of immigration, border patrol agents report that MS13 gang members – who admit they’ve committed murder – are allowed in. And now we should believe that those to whom you are granting amnesty have no criminal record? That our families are safe?
You’ve created a precedent for future presidents to outright ignore the law, from granting waivers to changing ObamaCare deadline dates, instructing federal prosecutors to not enforce certain drug laws, and telling ice agents to not enforce immigration laws, and to not deporting those who are both illegal and criminal.
So don’t be surprised when the next president – following your lead – decides to throw away entitlements, social security, education, civil rights laws or, God help us if she gets in, ban blue dresses in the White House.
What you did was a slap in the face to every immigrant who followed the rules.
I know. I personally swore in thousands of those naturalized citizens. They came here legally. They learned our language. They learned our history. They swore allegiance to this country and became proud American citizens.
You have made those millions who did it the “right way” – because of your unconstitutional actions – feel like schmucks!
And you try to intimidate us by quoting scripture:
“Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger – we were strangers once, too.” – Obama on Thursday
Wouldn’t you say scripture would apply more to your inaction as you stand silently while Christians are crucified, beheaded and slaughtered in the Middle East?
And so with this new amnesty – who should I feel more sorry for? Which is the bigger inhumanity? The people who come here illegally and are forced into the shadows by their own actions? Or those hardworking Americans who have to pay the price for your presidential overreach?
This is not about the audacity of hope Mr. President, this is about the tenacity of your lawlessness, the imbalance of your moral code and the imposition of your political agenda.
