Senate rebukes Cruz’s claims of unconstitutional immigration order

A vast majority of the Senate disagreed with Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) assertion that President Obama’s executive order on immigration is unconstitutional.

Cruz raised a constitutional point of order against the $1.1 trillion “cromnibus” — which funds most of the government through September, preventing a government shutdown.

{mosads}“If you believe President Obama’s executive order was unconstitutional vote yes,” Cruz said ahead of the vote on Saturday. “If you think the president’s executive order is constitutional vote no.”

Only 22 senators voted with Cruz and 74 voted against his point of order.

“The junior senator from Texas is wrong, wrong, wrong,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said. Reid said the vote had everything to do with the funding bill and nothing to do with immigration.

Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) agreed to allow a vote on the cromnibus late Saturday night after objecting the day before. Both have taken issue with President Obama’s executive order on immigration. They’ve called it an “illegal amnesty” program.

GOP House members refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security beyond February as protest to Obama’s executive order, but Lee and Cruz said it didn’t go far enough.

Forcing the Senate to stay in session Saturday didn’t make Cruz and Lee any friends.

Many Republicans blasted Cruz and Lee’s “strategy” as being ill conceived and a waste of time.

Cruz shutdown the government in 2013 over ObamaCare spending and many Republicans say it gave the party a black eye. Some speculate his motivations are purely political. He is considered a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2016.