Illegal Immigration

Shortly after Pres. Obama announced his executive actions on immigration, a group of 18 states filed suit against the Administration claiming that they would be negatively affected by the actions. The states claim that they'll be on the hook for providing public services and beefing up law enforcement, among other things, as a result of the actions. Since the initial suit was filed, 6 more states have signed on -- that means that nearly half the states in the country are suing Pres. Obama over amnesty.

And earlier this week, news broke that a judge in western Pennsylvania ruled that the President's amnesty is unconstitutional. Unfortunately, the ruling will have no impact on Obama's actions because the constitutionality of the executive actions was not contested in the case; instead, the case involved an illegal alien facing deportation, and the judge asked the attorneys to prepare briefs arguing whether or not the defendant would be eligible for deferred action under the President's plan. The judge based his decision on those briefs.

Ironically, stories like the one from Pennsylvania could actually make full implementation of Pres. Obama's executive actions more likely. When the new Congress starts session on Jan. 6, both chambers will be controlled by the Republican Party. But GOP Leaders have shown little interest in stopping Obama's amnesty. They had an opportunity during last week's spending battle, but decided not to pursue defunding the amnesty. Soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) even took it a step further by voting against Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) constitutional point of order objection while publicly ridiculing his tactics.

These lawsuits -- the Pennsylvania decision, the 24 states, and any other future court challenges -- only serve to distract the attention of the American people away from Congress and on the courts. Still, the best option to stop Pres. Obama's executive amnesty is for Congress to exercise its power of the purse and defund the actions. We will be coming to you early in the new year with ways you can help make this happen.

LAWMAKERS FACING HEAT BACK HOME

Earlier this week, Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kan.) came under fire from her constituents at a Town Hall meeting. Voters were angry with her vote on the CRomnibus bill that fully funds Pres. Obama's amnesty.

As reported by the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal:

Kansas Rep. Lynn Jenkins told a Lawrence audience Tuesday that immigration reform will be the No. 1 priority for Republicans when the next Congress convenes in January....

But many of the roughly 80 people who attended said they didn't want to wait that long and said they were frustrated that Jenkins voted to provide any funding to the Department of Homeland Security, which runs the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"They don't need to be funded, they don't deserve to be funded. Illegal aliens are exactly that," said Renee Slinkard, who said she lives near Kansas City, Kan. "You're giving them Social Security. You're giving them applications to where they can get work permits that take away the jobs. You're giving them all of these subsidies that we have to put out with our hard-earned money."

Earlier in the week, our Local Activism Manager, Melanie Oubre, had sent an alert to our Kansas activists alerting them of the Town Hall meeting. This is exactly the sort of pressure we need to be placing on our elected officials while they're home in their districts.