President Barack Obama’s recent executive order regarding immigration reform has been a relief to the majority of the United States’ undocumented immigrant population. Unfortunately, House Republicans did not welcome his decision. In a recent 237-190 vote, the House displayed its desire to revoke Obama’s executive order.

Republicans are outraged at the president’s decision because they believe Obama is manipulating his power in a way that resembles a dictatorship. They believe that Obama’s exercise of absolute power is unconstitutional and unprecedented, saying that it eliminates any aspects of democracy.

What they fail to realize, however, is that Obama has issued fewer executive orders than his predecessors. Several other presidents made the decision to exercise this power, George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan among them.

The president recognizes Republicans’ views on immigration, which they made crystal clear in the recent vote. However, the vote did absolutely nothing to sway his feelings on the subject.

Rather than creating a fuss about not getting their way, Republicans could spend their time working on their own comprehensive immigration reform bill — but it is their lack of action that led to the executive order in the first place.

Some type of immigration reform is absolutely necessary. As president, Obama took the responsibility upon himself to reform policy  because Congress had continually failed to come to some sort of agreement.

We all understand that the Republicans in the House do not support Obama’s decision. However, their unnecessary temper tantrums alone won’t be enough to change a revolutionary decision that could help the lives of the significant U.S. undocumented immigrant population.