WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-3rd, of Butler said that President Barack Obama’s unilateral action on immigration “sets a dangerous precedent that reduces Congress to a merely ceremonial institution.”

Kelly on Friday issued these comments on the president’s actions:

“Last night’s announcement by the president was 100 percent about politics, not about the best interests of the nation he’s supposed to serve.

“Unilaterally granting amnesty to 5 million illegal immigrants is not just a slap in the face to the millions of people waiting in line to come here legally, but also to our constitutional system. It sets a dangerous precedent that reduces Congress to a merely ceremonial institution.

“If this action was truly so urgent, then President Obama would have pushed it through the lawful legislative process when his party controlled both chambers of Congress.

“President Obama’s repeated justification that ‘Congress won’t act’ is not just pathetic and erroneous, but also chilling. It’s the sort of excuse one hears from a power-grabbing autocrat, not an American president.

“Even when the House and Senate act — or don’t act — in a way that the president disagrees with, it doesn’t change the fact that the legislative branch — not the executive branch — is where our laws are created. President Obama has no right to act like a king just because democracy doesn’t always go his way.

“I stand with my colleagues in the House of Representatives in complete objection to this radical overreach and am ready to support whatever action must be taken (to) restore integrity to our nation’s laws and Constitution.”