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Huckabee Sanders Admonishes Congress Over Immigration: 'Get Out of the Way' If You Can't Take on Tough Policy

September 5, 2017

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that lawmakers should "get out of the way" and let someone else take their job if they couldn't take on the "heavy lift" of immigration policy.

Asked what the Trump administration announcement that DACA would be rescinded would mean for the 359 program members who serve in the U.S. Army if Congress fails to pass a fix by March, Sanders said the White House had confidence Congress "is going to step up and do their job."

President Donald Trump has called for Congress to replace the Obama executive action with legislation before it begins phasing out in March.

"This is something that needs to be fixed legislatively, and we have confidence that they're going to do that, and we stand ready and willing to work with them in order to accomplish responsible immigration reform, and ... DACA's certainly part of that process," Sanders said.

When Fox News reporter John Roberts pointed out the divides in the GOP over immigration and how such legislation wouldn't be "easy," Sanders had a ready retort.

"With all due respect, I don't think the American people elected Congress to do things that were easy," she said. "They elected them to make a government that works, to work properly, and to work for American people, and that's their job, and if they can't do it, then they need to get out of the way and let somebody else who can take on a heavy lift and get things accomplished."

She later said, with a hint of a smile, that Congress should be "rested" after its three-week vacation and ready to take on major challenges.

"It's Congress' job to legislate. It's not the president's job to create law," she said. "It's Congress' job to create legislation. I think that's something we all learned in eighth-grade civics. I know I certainly did, and I think that every member of Congress should know that is their duty, and we're asking them to fulfill it. It's pretty simple."