Passing more immigration laws won't do any good if President Barack Obama refuses to enforce them, says Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa.
"This is an executive branch problem, not a legislative branch problem," King said on "Fox News Sunday." No amount of new legislation will fix what Obama refuses to do, he said.
When asked why the GOP shouldn't join in and pass a border security measure, King said Congress can do nothing to compel Obama to enforce laws he doesn't like, even though he is constitutionally required to do so. Obama has been sued over the "Morton memos," sent by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director John Morton telling his agency relax enforcement of immigration laws.
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King said that Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid aren't going to do anything to further enforcement because Democrats prefer to use immigration as a political issue.
"Some Republicans have bitten into this, thinking we have to take it off the table by passing amnesty," King said.
But Democrats will take credit for anything that is passed, he said, because Obama will be the one signing it, and Democrats will continue using it politically.
It's a mistake for Republicans to believe the 2012 presidential election was about immigration, King said.
"I don't remember a debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on immigration," he said. "I remember waking up the morning of the 7th of November after the election and hearing immigration was the reason Mitt Romney wasn't president-elect on that day."