Barack Obama Immigration Scandal: 8 Key Figures Caught Up in Executive Action Amnesty

President Barack Obama's "Immigration Accountability Executive Action" is ostensibly intended to help secure the border, facilitate issues of national security and increase the accountability of illegal immigrants. Detractors claim however, that the executive action is an immigration scandal and will provide amnesty to approximately 5 million illegal immigrants.

Here are eight key figures caught up in Barack Obama's immigration scandal:

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1. President Barack Obama is the key player in the amnesty scandal. He has chosen to disregard the role of Congress and push his own immigration agenda using a constitutionally tenuous, if not downright unconstitutional, executive action. In the past Obama has claimed he does not have the authority to take such an action. "There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply through executive order ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as President."

2. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has publicly railed against President Obama's amnesty order. However, Boehner was sharply rebuked for working with Obama in 2014 on an omnibus funding bill that also funded the executive action on amnesty through February 2015.

After the 2015 State of the Union Speech, Boehner did make the statement, "President Obama is not interested in securing the border or enforcing immigration law, and his unilateral action encourages more illegal immigration."

3. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) supported the House passed bill that would defund Obama's executive action on amnesty. However, in order to pass the Senate, the bill needs 60 votes and McConnell has been quick to point out the GOP only has 54.

McConnell's leadership has been described as "tepid" and Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) said, "It's high time that Mitch McConnell stand up and say, 'This is what we are fighting for in the Senate.' That's definitely what he said during his campaign, so let's make sure he does it now as the majority leader," reports The Hill.

4. Senate Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) has said that Obama's "unconstitutional executive action is something that we are not going to take lying down. It's something I think we are obligated to respond to." However, Cornyn also stated, "But we're not going to take any chances with the homeland," reports CNN.

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5. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claims that President Obama's action on immigration is not about providing amnesty to 5 million illegal immigrants. Pelosi claims the action is about "securing the border, holding undocumented immigrants accountable and again, making sure that everyone plays by the rules, pays taxes, and the rest."

6. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest levied accusations against House Republicans after the passage of the House bill to defund Obama's immigration action. "House Republicans are playing games with the resources we need to protect our country. They are keeping us from moving forward on critical investments in cyber-security, disaster recovery, counter-terrorism efforts, and incident response. And they are only perpetuating the current broken immigration system that everyone agrees must be fixed."

7. Judge Arthur J. Schwab, Western District of Pennsylvania declared that Obama's executive action on amnesty was unconstitutional. National Review Online reported that Schwab's 38-page opinion "rejected the administration’s claim that Obama’s non-enforcement of the immigration laws is a valid exercise of prosecutorial discretion."

8. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) took heat from conservatives for his support of a 2014 plan to fully fund the federal government and then attempt to rescind the funds for Obama's amnesty action later. When the House planned to vote on (and later passed) legislation to defund the amnesty action, Rogers said, "We want to send a bill to the president that defunds his amnesty program, but also very importantly funds the Department of Homeland Security."

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