Luis Gutierrez: 'It Is Now Time' for Executive Actions to Ease Deportations

On Wednesday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) said the time has come for President Barack Obama to use executive actions to ease deportations as thousands of illegal immigrant children are flooding across the U.S.-Mexico border.

“It is now time for the president to act,” Gutierrez said on the House floor.

He said “the president has no other choice but to act within existing law to ensure that our deportation policies are humane” and that kids who are deported are “detriments” and “not assets” to the country and its economy.

Waving a red card in the spirit of the World Cup, Gutierrez also told Republicans to get off the political playing field regarding immigration.

“You’re done. Leave the field. Too many flagrant offenses and unfair attacks and too little action,” he said. “You’re out. Hit the showers. It’s the red card.”

Gutierrez, as he has done in the past when he said George W. Bush would be the last Republican president if the GOP does not pass amnesty, said Republicans are losing their chance to be competitive in presidential contests by not acting on an immigration bill.

“You are out when it comes to the White House,” Gutierrez said. He said the GOP has now left it up to Democrats to pick Supreme Court Justices, conduct foreign policy, and carry out all functions of the executive branch because every GOP candidate will enter the presidential race with “an electoral college deficit they cannot make up.”