WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen.-elect Tom Cotton said Sunday during an appearance on Fox News Sunday that he is hopeful President Barack Obama won't act without Congress to overhaul the country's immigration system.
But if the president does act alone, there are less drastic ways for lawmakers to stop his actions than shutting down the federal government, he said.
Obama has said he will take broad executive action to address problems with the country's immigration system by the end of the year if the U.S. House and Senate do not act.
"They have the ability to fix the system. What they don't have the ability to do is to expect me to stand by with a broken system in perpetuity," Obama said at news conference in Burma on Friday.
Specifics of the president's plan have not been released by the White House, but are expected to include a deportation reprieve for millions of children brought into the country illegally and their parents, prioritizing deportations of criminals, expanding visa programs for highly skilled workers and reducing the naturalization fee for some applicants.
Republican leaders have urged him not to act alone, with some threatening that shutting down the government is a viable option.
Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle who currently represents Arkansas' 4th District in Congress, said Sunday that he hopes it doesn't come to that, but he didn't take the option off the table. He said Republican gains across the country, and the electoral loss by several lawmakers who support the president's plan, show Americans don't want Obama to act without Congress.
"I don't think anyone wants to shut down the government, because that doesn't solve the problem," Cotton said. "But it's not just Republicans who have spoken on this. The American people have spoken."
He pointed to several Democratic senators who lost Nov. 4 who had supported a comprehensive immigration bill that passed the Senate in 2013. Cotton defeated U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, who supported the bill.
"The American people have spoken loudly about the kind of immigration reform they want and it's not what the president is proposing," Cotton said.
That bill passed 68 to 32, with support from all 52 Democrats, 14 Republicans and two Independents.
Obama repeated Friday that he would prefer the U.S. House and Senate overhaul the immigration system themselves, but said he has waited long enough.
"There has been ample opportunity for Congress to pass a bipartisan immigration bill that would strengthen our borders, improve the legal immigration system, lift millions of people out of the shadows so they are paying taxes and getting right by the law. It passed out of the Senate. I gave the House over a year to go ahead and at least give a vote to the Senate bilaterally; they failed to do so," he said.
Cotton appeared from the show's Washington studio with host and journalist Chris Wallace. U.S. Sen.-elect and U.S. Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla., spoke via a video feed from Oklahoma during the same 10-minute segment of the hour-long show.
Lankford said shutting the government down is not the only way Congress can stop the president.
"There are ways to be able to fund everything. I don't think the president has the high ground. He has this perception that everyone in the country thinks like him. That is not correct," he said.
Cotton said Congress has limited how the executive branch uses taxpayer dollars in the past, such as preventing the shutdown of the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"There's no reason that we can't fund all of our immigration agencies and law enforcement agencies, yet not let the president use taxpayer dollars to give Social Security numbers and work permits [and] photo IDs to illegal immigrants," he said.
Other strategies being discussed include funding the government through the new year, when Republicans will hold majority control of both chambers; suing the president; and passing a non-funding bill to stop him.
Cotton demurred when prodded by Wallace as to whether Congress should limit actions on immigration in the funding bills that, if passed, would keep the government operating past Dec. 11. Including the limit would potentially draw a veto.
"I'm hopeful that we won't have to take that action, because I'm hopeful the president will listen to what the American people said last week," he said. "I don't want to yet prejudge what he may or may not do."
After the show, Cotton said by phone that if the president vetoed funding bills with limits, there is potentially enough support in the House and Senate to override the veto, adding that some Democrats may join Republicans.
Cotton has appeared on Sunday morning shows previously, including on Fox News Sunday in 2013. Cotton appears frequently on Fox News shows, especially Your World with Neil Cavuto.
Metro on 11/17/2014