Posted: Friday, February 6, 2015 11:45 pm

By Joseph Morton / World-Herald Bureau

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., is spending his weekend in Texas to check out the security situation.

“I am eager to see firsthand the challenges our Border Patrol agents face on our southern border,” Sasse said in a statement.

Sasse is a member of the Homeland Security Committee. He will be traveling with Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Tom Carper of Delaware, the top Democrat on the panel.

The trip comes as Congress wrestles with what to do about a looming deadline for funding the Department of Homeland Security. Lawmakers have until the end of the month to pass the spending bill, which has been mired in a partisan standoff over immigration policy.

The House approved the funding bill last month after an amendment added language rolling back the president’s executive actions to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation.

This week, the Senate voted three times on the House proposal. Each time, Republicans failed to overcome a filibuster by Democrats, who object to the immigration provisions.

Sasse said he’s optimistic that this weekend’s border trip will provide information that will help find solutions for securing the border.

The trio will visit Corpus Christi, Hidalgo and McAllen, meeting with local ranchers, sheriffs and Border Patrol agents.

They also plan to observe an unmanned aircraft system operation, visit a port of entry and tour a Border Patrol station.

Earlier this week, Sasse joined Johnson in sending a letter to the Treasury inspector general asking whether the president’s executive actions will allow those in the country illegally to receive the federal earned income tax credit.

The tax break is targeted to help low-income workers.

“We are concerned that because the president’s new rules would let millions of people access these programs for the first time, the cost to the taxpayer could be billions of dollars,” they wrote.

In addition, Sasse suggested, allowing them to get the tax credits might result in additional illegal immigration.

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