Thread: House rebukes Obama over immigration actions, spending fight looms

House rebukes Obama over immigration actions, spending fight looms

Published December 04, 2014 FoxNews.com



NOW PLAYINGRep. Luis Gutierrez on if Obama's immigration plan is legal
House Republicans voted Thursday to block President Obama's immigration executive actions, though it was unclear whether the largely symbolic step would be enough to prevent a risky budget stand-off next week.

The House voted 219-197 for the bill, by Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., that declares Obama's actions "null and void and without legal effect."

The legislation is part of a three-step plan by House GOP leaders to both address Obama's immigration maneuvers and approve a new spending bill to avert a partial government shutdown. Next week, the chamber is set to vote on a bill funding most of the government through fiscal 2015, and the Department of Homeland Security through early next year. That would tee up a new fight over funding for Obama's immigration policies when Republicans control both chambers.

However, many conservative lawmakers want to wage that battle now, and use the looming Dec. 11 deadline -- when current government funding expires -- as leverage to defund the immigration plan.

They worry Yoho's legislation is an ineffective tool for doing that, as the stand-alone bill approved Thursday stands little chance of passing the Senate. The White House also has issued a veto threat, calling the bill "non-sensical."

"I'm not happy," Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., said. He said he's concerned that if Republicans don't fight the immigration policy now, it could send the wrong signal ahead of the new Congress.

Conservative sources indicate there are between 30 and 40, or more, conservatives who would bolt on any spending bill next week.

"There's a higher risk of more [members] bolting," said one source. "Let us sort of vent. I don't think [GOP leaders] thought this was going to be as big an issue."

But despite that concern, one source said GOP leaders think would-be defectors will come back to favor the plan at the end.

Asked if he was concerned that opposition could torpedo the spending bill, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said: "I don't think so. I'm hearing good things about it."

Still, House Speaker John Boehner might need Democratic support to carry the spending package across the finish line next week.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, who had been coy about whether she'd help pass a spending plan, said Thursday she's reached out to Boehner to extend a "hand of friendship" to keep the government open -- as long as Democrats see a bill they can support.

It's unclear whether the legislation in the works meets that criteria. She indicated Thursday that Democrats might make demands if Boehner needs their help.

"If he has 218 votes, there's no conversation. If he doesn't, we have leverage," Pelosi said.

At a press conference earlier Thursday, Boehner urged his rank-and-file to be patient, making the case for delaying the immigration fight until next year.

"Come January, we'll have a Republican House and Republican Senate, and we'll be in a stronger position to take actions," he said.

Boehner said the current plan is "the most practical way to fight the president's action."

Obama's executive actions would defer deportations and grant work permits to up to 5 million illegal immigrants.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014...g-fight-looms/

I'm searching for hope from that. At this time I'm not finding hope approaching.

It just seems to be a feel good piece, appeasing a few to pacification, which is exactly what piece meal amnesty will do next year. Pacify enough and they will get it done to Zuckerberg's satisfaction by eliminating the opposition to legalization a few at a time. Republicans are very good at political trickery.

I'm not opening myself up to trickery, only solid results for Americans. That must include 100% deportation with safe border protection from future alien infestation!!

White House Issues Veto Threat On Bill To Block Deportation Relief

Posted: 12/04/2014 12:42 pm EST Updated: 12/04/2014 12:59 pm EST

WASHINGTON -- The White House issued a veto threat on Thursday for a bill from House Republicans to block the president's executive actions on immigration, which could shield up to 5 million people from deportation. House Republicans are set to vote on the legislation later Thursday.

"The bill’s objective is clearly to nullify and block implementation of these executive actions, which would have devastating consequences," the White House statement said. "It would lead to the separation of families and prevent additional Dreamers from fully contributing to American life."

The White House veto threat was not surprising -- administration officials had indicated that any measures to end President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration would not get a signature.

But it served as a reminder of how difficult it will be for Republicans to block Obama's immigration policies.

GOP members have said Obama's policies are just the latest in a string of actions that overstep his constitutional authority. The White House has said the policies will allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement to spend its limited resources deporting recent border-crossers, criminals and national security threats.

The largest piece of Obama's executive actions will allow parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents to stay and work legally if they meet certain requirements, such as being in the U.S. for five or more years. It will also expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, or DACA, which was created in 2012 to provide similar protections to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. under the age of 16. House Republicans have previously voted to do away with DACA.

The White House statement said the new House bill would hurt not just young undocumented immigrants and their families, but also hurt national security, the economy and immigration officials' ability to focus on serious threats.

"H.R. 5759 would make the broken immigration system worse, not better," the statement read.

"By attempting to restrict the administration’s ability to conduct national security and criminal background checks on undocumented immigrants, H.R. 5759 would make the Nation’s communities less safe.

By attempting to make it more difficult for undocumented workers to register and pay taxes, the bill would hurt the nation’s economy as well."

Republicans have vowed to fight against the executive actions on immigration, and some are pushing for language in funding bills next week that would ban the Department of Homeland Security from using funds to implement the policies.

Republican leaders have indicated, however, that they instead will vote on a bill to fund DHS until next year, when a GOP-led Senate can help them in efforts to block Obama's immigration actions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/1...n_6269830.html

Originally Posted by kevinssdad

I'm searching for hope from that. At this time I'm not finding hope approaching.

It just seems to be a feel good piece, appeasing a few to pacification, which is exactly what piece meal amnesty will do next year. Pacify enough and they will get it done to Zuckerberg's satisfaction by eliminating the opposition to legalization a few at a time. Republicans are very good at political trickery.

I'm not opening myself up to trickery, only solid results for Americans. That must include 100% deportation with safe border protection from future alien infestation!!

Yes, 100%.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

At a press conference earlier Thursday, Boehner urged his rank-and-file to be patient, making the case for delaying the immigration fight until next year.

"Come January, we'll have a Republican House and Republican Senate, and we'll be in a stronger position to take actions," he said.

IMO the Republican ledership is using the Wait till next year ploy as smoke screen. By the time the Repubs theoretically have the power to move, so much damage will have been done, that the leadership will say that it's too late to make any real changes to 'Bama's dictate.

Patriots had better start working on Universal E-Verify, to shut off the the next wave off illegals. Amnesty will alert illegal wannabes that the door is wide open to them.

A five year phase in of E-Verify was part of the Senate's immigration bill. (S744, I think.) I haven't heard the Repub leadership mention it, now that they have a majority in the Senate. Look for the leadership to huff and puff about a fence, while they phone their big-money donors, to assure them that there will be all the surplus labor that they want.

E-Verify would seal the border, and for pennies on the enforcement dollar, so I expect the Repub leadership to start talking about problems with it.
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House rebukes Obama on immigration
Friday, December 5, 2014
By ERICA WERNER ~ Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Emboldened House Republicans issued a rebuke to President Barack Obama over immigration Thursday, passing a bill declaring his executive actions to curb deportations "null and void and without legal effect."

Outraged Democrats, immigrant advocates and the White House said the GOP was voting to tear families apart and eject parents.

"Rather than deport students and separate families and make it harder for law enforcement to do its job, I just want the Congress to work with us to pass a commonsense law to fix that broken immigration system," Obama said before the vote.

Even supporters acknowledged the bill by Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., which says Obama was acting "without any constitutional or statutory basis," was mostly meant to send a message.

It stands no chance in the Senate, which remains under Democratic control until January, and faces the veto threat from Obama.

A bigger fight may lie ahead as conservatives push to use must-pass spending legislation to block Obama.

For now, Republicans insisted they must go on record denouncing what they described on the House floor as an outrageous power grab by Obama.

"The president thinks he can just sit in the Oval Office and make up his own laws. That's not the way our system of government works," said Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. "This legislation says you can't do that, Mr. President. There is a rule of law."

The vote was 219 to 197, with three Democratic "yes" votes and seven Republican "no" votes. Three Republicans voted "present."

Obama's executive actions last month will extend deportation relief and work permits to some 4 million immigrants here illegally, mostly those who have been in the country more than five years and have children who are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. He also reordered law enforcement priorities and expanded an existing deportation deferral program for immigrants brought illegally as kids.

Compounding the GOP's anger, Obama's executive action came barely two weeks after Republicans trounced Democrats in the midterm elections, winning control of the Senate and increasing their majorities in the House.

Democratic lawmakers rallied behind the president Thursday, and immigrant advocates warned Republicans would be alienating Latinos heading into 2016 presidential elections in which the Hispanic vote is expected to be significant.

"They should remember that this is not a fight between Republicans and the president," said Clarissa Martinez de Castro, of the National Council of La Raza. "They will be picking a fight with the millions of American families who will finally find some relief."

Even as emotions ran high in debate on the bill, many involved acknowledged it was mostly a sideshow as Republicans struggled to find some way to undo what Obama has done -- not just register their disapproval. Party leaders acknowledged their options were limited given Obama's veto pen, and no clear solution beckoned.

The Yoho bill was part of a two-part strategy by House GOP leadership to appease conservative immigration hardliners without risking a government shutdown. Their hope was that after approving it, Republicans would move on next week to vote on legislation to keep most of the government running for a year, with a shorter timeframe for the Homeland Security Department, which oversees immigration. The idea is to revisit Homeland Security early next year when Republicans will control both houses at the Capitol and have more leverage. The current government-funding measure expires Dec. 11 so a new one must pass by then.

But that approach doesn't go far enough for some immigration hardliners, goaded on by outside conservative groups and tea party senators including Ted Cruz of Texas. They say the only real way to stop Obama is to include language in the upcoming spending bill to block any money for his actions on immigration.

"I didn't come back here to just play games," said Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz. "Our voters who sent us back here in a resounding way in the majority, and retaking the majority in the Senate, expected us to be a little more forceful in our fight."

Republican leaders fear such spending-bill language could court an Obama veto and even a government shutdown. That's something they're determined to avoid, a year after taking a political hit for provoking a 16-day partial shutdown in an unsuccessful attempt to overturn Obama's health care law.

House Speaker John Boehner made clear Thursday that his strategy would go forward unchanged and indicated he anticipated Democratic votes would help pass the spending bill. That gives Democrats leverage, and they haven't indicated whether they will lend their support. It also could anger a bloc of conservatives in the House, but Boehner, who will control a larger House majority next year giving him more room to maneuver, showed little patience for their complaints.

"We think this is the most practical way to fight the president's action and frankly we listened to our members, and we listened to some members who are frankly griping the most. This was their idea of how to proceed," Boehner said.


http://www.semissourian.com/story/2144037.html

http://www.alipac.us/f12/alipac-hous...-clash-315619/

House Leaders Move to Avoid Immigration Showdown

WASHINGTON — Dec 5, 2014, 12:29 PM ET
By ERICA WERNER and ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press


Trying to avoid a showdown over immigration, House Republican leaders are moving to make a deal with Democrats to pass a spending bill that would keep the government running past next week.

The emerging strategy follows legislation passed Thursday by the House declaring President Barack Obama's executive actions to curb deportations of immigrants in the U.S. illegally to be "null and void." That legislation wasn't enough for some conservatives, who complained that the only way to stop Obama's actions on immigration would be to forbid them in legislation that must pass if the government is to stay open.

Republican leaders are opposed to that course of action, fearing a government shutdown that they don't want, and they plan to rely on Democratic votes to pass a bill to keep the government going.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday that Democrats were committed to keeping the government open, but she warned that Republicans could lose their support if they include too many contentious so-called policy riders in the spending bill, on issues like school lunch nutrition standards and water quality.

"We haven't seen the bill. But there are some very destructive riders in it that would be unacceptable to us and, I think, unacceptable to the American people," Pelosi said.

"The responsibility to keep government open is theirs. If the bill is anything that we can support, we will," added Pelosi, who has more leverage in the negotiations because of Boehner's likely need to rely on her to deliver Democratic votes.

The spending bill would pay for the operations of most government agencies for a year while extending the Homeland Security Department operations only for a few months. Homeland Security includes the immigration agencies that would carry out Obama's executive actions, so the approach would allow Republicans to revisit them early next year, once they have control of the Senate and a bigger majority in the House.

"We think this is the most practical way to fight the president's action," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said.

Several conservative lawmakers sounded resigned Thursday to being ignored by Boehner, who with a bigger majority next year will have more room to maneuver around balky tea party lawmakers.

"My assumption is that the fix is in and they don't need us," said Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz. "They're going to vote this with a large number of Democrats."

The omnibus spending bill would cover the approximately one-third of the budget dedicated to day-to-day operations of Cabinet agencies. There's slightly more than $1 trillion for the Pentagon and domestic agencies plus more than $70 billion to tackle overseas military operations in Afghanistan and to fight Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. Obama appeared likely to get most of his $6.2 billion request for fighting Ebola at home and in Africa but not the infrastructure money he has requested.

Most of the money issues are largely worked out, House Appropriations Committee spokeswoman Jennifer Hing said. But many of the policy riders, on environmental regulations, long-haul trucker hours, labor relations and more are unresolved.

GOP Rep. Harold Rogers of Kentucky, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, hopes to achieve the framework of a deal with Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, by the end of Friday and release it Monday.

The bill on deportations, approved on a 219-197 vote, put the House on record against Obama's actions granting work permits to more than 4 million immigrants in the country illegally. Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., was among those who wanted more direct action to block what the president is doing.

"Having said we're going to do everything we can to stop this ? and then to do nothing to stop it ? really hurts," he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireS...nment-27384500