Florida US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart has blamed the deadlock on immigration reform on both the Democratic and the Republican parties, and on President Obama himself, declaring that there is no doubt that the immigration system in the United States is broken but that the president has gone the wrong way about trying to fix it.
“The only permanent real fix to the broken immigration system – and it’s absolutely broken from A to Z … for our economy, for our national security interests, for the rule of law, by the way for folks who have done things legally, it is totally unfair – the only way to get it done is through a legislative fix,” the Florida congressman said.
Diaz-Balart added that Obama’s decision to try to deal with the issue of immigration reform through executive actions has only made matters worse; however, he pointed out that the responsibility also lies with Congress, which has had years to deal with the problem yet spectacularly failed to do anything about it. “The Republican leadership has killed it, Democratic leadership has killed it, President Obama has helped kill it,” he claims.
Although Diaz-Balart is against the president’s decision to take executive action, he voted against the DHS funding bill that included amendments to withdraw funds from the deferred action program. He explained his decision by saying that shutting down the Department of Homeland Security due to lack of funds is not a situation that anyone wants to see.