By Eric Stock
WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin said he expects the Supreme Court will overturn a lower court ruling and will restore President Barack Obama’s executive order to grant legal status to about 5 million immigrants.
Durbin told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin critics in Congress had years to reform a broken immigration system.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Durbin on WJBC.
“Congress fails to debate it, refuses to debate it,” Durbin said. “The President says ‘I’m going to do this thing because I think it’s fair and it’s temporary and it’s within my authority. The obvious question is when are you going to call the comprehensive reform bill?”
The high court on Tuesday agreed to hear the case brought by 26 states this spring.
Emails
Durbin said he isn’t too worried about the email controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton, given that it’s not clear whether classified emails found on her home server came from her or were simply sent to her.
“That’s pretty important when you get right down to it,” Durbin said. “If somebody sent her this classified information it could have been their fault, not her fault”.
There are new reports that some of those emails were classified at higher levels than previously known.
Durbin added the Democratic presidential front runner has already conceded she made a mistake in not having better controls over the sharing of classified information.
Obamacare
Durbin said he would welcome some changes to the Affordable Care Act, which has become an issue in the Democratic presidential primary race. He said Obamacare has done some good, in slowing the soaring rise in health care costs.
“We can do better and I think we are moving toward better models where people are getting quality care and getting better results and not spending as much time in the hospital,” Durbin said.
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has called for a single-payer health care system. Durbin didn’t say he supports a full government takeover of health care.
“We hope it doesn’t reach that point,” Durbin said.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
