Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is calling for Republicans to rollback President Obama’s executive order allowing millions of illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S.

Speaking at the conservative Iowa Freedom Summit, the newly elected senator complained of “too much overreach” from President Obama. 

{mosads}”He is taking on the job that I was sent to Washington, D.C., to do, what Chuck Grassley does, what Congressman King does,” Ernst said. “We are legislators, the president is not. We need to stop that executive overreach, and that includes executive amnesty.”

Fresh off giving the GOP rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union address this past week, Ernst said Republicans have to keep the momentum going coming off their success in last November’s elections.

“I think we are all aware that we must take back the White House,” Ernst said. “If we expect to get through this gridlock and pass and have signed into law this wonderful legislation, we must have a Republican president.” 

Ernst also spoke about on-going Republican efforts to curb abortion. On Thursday, a bill stalled in the House that would have banned abortion after 20 weeks, halted after several GOP women had exceptions to its rape exception language. 

Ernst said the priority should be “defending life, defending innocent life.”

“We as a society will be judged by how we take care of the most vulnerable in our population,” she said. “That goes from the beginning of life to our natural death. So we need to make sure that everyone understands that we are compassionate and that we will defend this innocent life.