Hoyer Discusses President Obama’s Immigration Executive Actions Announcement on MSNBC's "The Ed Show"

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On Immigration Reform

“Everybody, including [Speaker] John Boehner recognizes the immigration system is broken. Eighteen months ago, the Senate [sent a] bill in a bipartisan fashion. They worked together. They came up with legislation to fix the broken immigration system. It has sat unattended for the last 18 months. I know personally that [Speaker] John Boehner wants to see the immigration system fixed. He wants to see a comprehensive immigration reform. I, frankly, this will give him the impetus to get his Members who have been reluctant to follow his leadership in putting on the Floor a comprehensive immigration bill. It would give him impetus to do so. So I think this is both the right thing to do by the President of the United States. It's the moral thing to do. It will help our economy. It would give relief to literally millions of people who are worried about being wrenched from their families. As I said, it's the moral thing to do, but it's also economically going to help our economy, and it is a system of accountability. People are going to have to come forward.”

“The American people want us to work together… For 18 months we've had in the House a bill that was sent to us with [the support of] 68 members of the Senate, more than two-thirds of the Senate, with a large number of Republicans voting for it…We haven’t worked on it. We haven't put it on the Floor. We haven’t amended it. We haven’t had hearings in committee on it. The fact of the matter is that the President feels a responsibility to act in a way that can fix the broken system. Now, it's limited. He can't do everything he would like, and, very frankly, when he's acted, the Congress can pass a law which will substitute for the executive order.”

“I would hope my Republican Colleagues would respond in an adult, calm fashion and say okay, ‘This is how the President thinks we ought to fix it. We may have another idea. If we do, we'll put it on the Floor, and we'll send it to the President as a law.’ And I think the President, if we work together, will sign such a law that fixes [the immigration system] as [Speaker] Boehner wants to do. He said that, and we shouldn't have this overreaction and threats to one another about shutting down the American people's government in some sort of tantrum.”