CONGRESSMAN MARSHA BLACKBURN OUR IMMIGRATION FIGHT.

Nov 24, 2014

U.S. CONGRESSMAN MARSHA BLACKBURN OUR IMMIGRATION FIGHT.

Friends-

Thank you for letting me jump right in and address the many questions, calls, tweets, and emails you’ve sent, since President Obama addressed the nation last night. I want to be clear,- I am with you. I share your frustration. President Obama’s actions on immigration are lawless, and I’m going to continue to pursue every legal means to fight his illegal amnesty plan.

President Obama said he simply must bypass the Constitution, because the House had refused to act on immigration. That could not be further from the truth. With your support, the House has taken numerous actions to stem the tide of illegal immigration. We’ve passed almost 400 bills, a number of them dealing with immigration, that are sitting on Senator Harry Reid’s desk. I think it’s politically convenient, for President Obama’s political leader in the Senate, to sit on legislation, 98% of which was passed with bipartisan support, only to give President Obama cover to act outside his legal purview.

I’d like to share with you some of the immigration bills the House worked on this year. Please feel free to share with your social media networks.

-The SAFE Act, – improves the enforcement of our immigration laws already on the books, by increasing border security, making it more difficult for those who wish to do us harm, to enter the United States, and by protecting American communities from dangerous criminal aliens.

-The Legal Workforce Act, – works against illegal immigration, by ensuring jobs are only made available to those authorized to work in the United States.

-The A.G. Act, – creates a temporary agricultural guest-worker program, to provide American farmers with access to a reliable workforce.

-The SKILLS Visa Act,- provides American employers with access to the world’s best talent, by allocating green cards to foreign graduates of American universities with advanced degrees, in science, technology, engineering, and math fields, increasing H-1 B visas, and repealing the employment-based per-country cap.

Along with these bills, I’ve authored, co-sponsored, and supported, several pieces of legislation in the 113th Congress, that would have approached immigration reform the way you’ve let me know you wanted,- piece by piece, starting with border security.

-The Secure the Southwest Border Supplemental Appropriations Act, – would address the significant rise in unaccompanied alien children, and alien adults, accompanied by an alien minor. As well, the Border Supplemental would prohibit the Department of Homeland Security, from reprogramming money to pay for actions prohibited by Congress, and would provide for the use of military personnel, operation, and maintenance to secure the border.

- The Deferred Actions on Childhood Arrivals Act,- my legislation would prohibit federal agencies from using your tax dollars, to authorize any alien to work in the United States, who was not lawfully admitted. More importantly, my Deferred Actions on Childhood Arrivals Act bill, would force President Obama to roll back his previous executive order, that created the humanitarian crisism that brought so many unaccompanied children across our border.

-The CLEAR Act,- is another piece of legislation I authored, that would allow state and local law enforcement officers the authority to investigate, apprehend, or transfer to federal custody illegal aliens.

As you can see, the House has diligently worked through this immigration crisis. We’ve taken a thoughtful and systemic approach to solving the problems at our borders. We’ve been faced, at every turn, with a Senate unwilling to take up these key pieces of legislation, and a president unwilling to do the hard work challenges, like these require. We do not have a broken immigration system that requires the president to act outside of his constitutional authority, we have a president insistent on not enforcing the laws already on the books.

I wanted to let you know, I am in support of the current House lawsuit against President Obama. When one branch of government believes another, to have stepped beyond their given authority, the judicial branch is the proper place for the question at hand.  While this lawsuit deals with President Obama’s overreach on healthcare, it has far-reaching implications. It is the right course of action for the House to take, but there will be more.

When the House comes back after the Thanksgiving recess, and of course when the 114th Congress gavels in, I will continue to lead the fight, for a piece-by-piece approach, to immigration reform, keeping in mind these two critical components: 1). we have to first secure the border, and 2). we must enforce the immigration laws currently on the books.

President Obama’s address last night, was nothing more than political theater. You and I know the truth,- we have to keep working together on a commonsense solution, that is outside of politics. It is a shame that President Obama would rather take out his royal pen, and phone, than work with the people duly sworn and elected to write the nation’s laws.

Thanks for all you do.

Marsha Blackburn, United States Representative for The 7th District of Tennessee.

Growing up, Marsha Blackburn learned that the promise of our nation, depends on each generation of Americans, working hard to leave the country a better place than they found it. As a small business woman, author, mother, grandmother, and Member of Congress, Marsha Blackburn has dedicated her service to the sacred obligation all citizens have, to their communities: making Tennessee and America a better, more prosperous, and freer place.

Congressman Blackburn began her elected service career in 1998, as a Tennessee State Senator. Blackburn’s Senate career, was marked by her commitment to fiscal common sense and government accountability. She became known to her constituents for holding “budget school”, in her district and across the state; identifying waste and offering solutions for a state in a budget crunch.

While serving in the Tennessee Senate, Blackburn led a statewide grassroots campaign to defeat a proposed state income tax. She earned the reputation as a champion of anti-tax, and government reform issues, frequently appearing on local talk radio, and even earning the attention of national publications, like the Wall Street Journal, and conservative groups such as Americans for Tax Reform.