Thread: House votes to overturn Obama immigration actions; bill now goes to Senate

I still want to know how legislation is supposed to reign in a President that refuses to honor existing legislation?

John Boehner is doing this by way of amendment to funding bills because that is the least exciting and least attention getting way for him to fake his resistance to Obama.

If impeachment proceedings were begun it would attract a great deal of attention and Republicans would find themselves winning against Obama with a large majority of the American population.

But that correct course of action would also shut down and cancel all attempts to give illegals amnesty because most Americans oppose that too!

W

"You can't always get what you want

But if you try sometimes well you might find

You get what you need"

Sir Mick

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January 14, 2015, 12:06 pm

House passes bill to defund Obama’s immigration orders

By Rebecca Shabad and Cristina Marcos
20781

Getty Images

The House voted Wednesday to block funding for President Obama’s immigration orders, firing the first shot in a high-stakes battle over deferred deportations for the millions of people who are in the country illegally.

The measure passed in a 236-191 vote, with 10 Republicans voting against it and two Democrats voting in favor.

Democrats rallied against the bill, which would fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through September, after Republicans adopted a series of contentious amendments that take aim at facets of Obama’s immigration policy.One of the amendments would choke off funding for Obama’s executive action in November, which would allow some illegal immigrants to stay in the country and obtain work permits.

A second amendment would halt the Deferred Action for Children Arrivals Program (DACA), which lifts deportation for some illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children.

The defunding amendment was adopted in a 237-190 vote, with 7 Republicans voting no, while the DACA amendment was approved 218-209, with 26 Republicans defecting.

House Democrats were unified in opposition to both provisions.

The 10 Republican no votes on the final legislation came from Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Mike Coffman (Colo.), Carlos Curbelo (Fla.), Jeff Denham (Calif.), Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), Bob Dold (Ill.), Renee Ellmers (N.C.), Thomas Massie (Ky.), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) and David Valadao (Calif.).

The two Democrats voting in favor were Reps. Brad Ashford (Neb.) and Collin Peterson (Minn.).

Before the votes began, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made a rare speech on the House floor in support and quoted 22 times when Obama said he didn’t have the authority to unilaterally rewrite immigration law.

“We are dealing with a president who has ignored the people, ignored the Constitution, and even his own past statements," Boehner said.

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), one of the co-sponsors of the amendment to defund the November actions, said lawmakers needed to stand up to avoid setting a new precedent where the executive branch is allowed to flout the will of Congress.

"Law is not made because Congress fails to act. Law is made in this room when we do act," Mulvaney said during floor debate.

Mulvaney pledged that he would join Democrats in opposing similar unilateral action from a Republican president.

"I will the first to be here with you to stand against that to fight back," Mulvaney said.

Three other amendments that were folded into the spending bill would prioritize deportation for illegal immigrants convicted of sexual abuse and domestic violence; promote the hiring of U.S. citizens above those who are in the country illegally, and express the sense of Congress the administration should “stop putting the interest of immigrants who worked within the legal framework to come to the US behind those who came here illegally.”

All five amendments were attached to a nearly $40 billion bill that would fund DHS through September. Congress must fund the department by Feb. 27 or it could shut down.

House Republicans say they are acting well ahead of the deadline to give the Republican Senate enough time to consider the package. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said the upper chamber would focus on the bill in February, which could lead to a showdown with Democrats at the eleventh hour.

The White House has already promised that President Obama would veto the DHS bill if “ideological provisions” were tied to it.

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, blasted Republicans for attaching the immigration amendments to Homeland Security funding.

"After the tragic events in Paris, it is appalling that some would jeopardize our national security by adding these irresponsible amendments," Lowey said.

House Republicans are heading out of Washington later Wednesday to attend a joint retreat with Senate Republicans in Hershey, Pa., where the party’s next moves on immigration are likely to be a matter of fierce debate.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) noted that House Republican leaders had presented a set of immigration reform principles for a potential legislative overhaul at their retreat just one year ago.

"Wow. Time flies when you're playing politics with people's lives," Gutierrez said. "What are the headlines today? Behold the Republican immigration strategy, mass deportation."

Gutierrez said the amendments to undo President Obama's actions would ultimately hurt Republicans in the long run.
"The fruits of your action today will only cause anger and outrage and the mobilization of an immigrant community throughout this nation that will be the death nail to the future of your party as an institution," Gutierrez said.

The base bill's other key provisions include increased funding for Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Secret Service.

The bill decreases funding from the last fiscal year for the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard and for the department’s research and development activities.

The DHS funding bill also includes $10.7 billion for Customs and Border Protection, an increase of nearly $119 million above last year’s funding level, and nearly $6 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an increase of $689 million.

Those provisions are intended to boost border surveillance and to finance more detention beds for illegal immigrants, following last summer's border crisis, when officials struggled to handle an enormous influx of unaccompanied minors from Central America.

In response to last year’s Secret Service scandal involving numerous security breaches, the bill provides $1.7 billion in funding to remedy those failures and to prepare and train officers for the 2016 presidential election. That's an increase of $80.5 million above the level enacted for fiscal 2014.

The bill also provides about $753 million for cybersecurity operations, which is a $39 million decrease from the level enacted for 2014.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-actio...gration-orders

http://www.alipac.us/f9/house-gops-i...senate-316717/

Senate Republicans cautious on US security bill, immigration fight

BY DAVID LAWDER
WASHINGTON Tue Jan 13, 2015 5:50pm EST

Speaker of the House John Boehner wields the gavel for the first time after being re-elected as the Speaker of the House of Representatives at the start of the 114th Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington January 6, 2015.
CREDIT: REUTERS/JIM BOURG

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(Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans on Tuesday said it was unclear if they could pass a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that blocks President Barack Obama's immigration initiatives, raising an early stumbling block for the new Republican Congress.

Senate Republicans acknowledged that the measure, expected to win approval in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, may not get the 60 Senate votes needed to clear procedural hurdles erected by Democrats.

Republicans have a 54-46 Senate majority and would need to persuade some Democrats to vote against Obama's executive action to lift the threat of deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants. The House measure is expected to ban money from being used to implement the order.

"If we can't pass the House bill we'd have to come up with an idea of what could pass the Senate," said John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate's second-ranking Republican.

Republicans can expect no support from Democrats on the issue, a Senate Democratic leadership aide said on Tuesday. The White House has said it would veto a DHS funding bill with immigration restrictions.

Several Senate Republicans said they were wary of risking an interruption in Homeland Security's $39.7 billion annual budget following the deadly attacks in Paris.

Funding for the sprawling agency that secures U.S. borders, airports and coastal waters will be cut off on Feb. 27 if Congress and the White House cannot agree on a plan.

"I know there's a lot of consensus on our side that the last thing we need to do is to do something to jeopardize the security of our own citizens," said Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee.

House Speaker John Boehner said the Republican-dominated House will fully fund the department while blocking funds to carry out Obama's immigration actions, which he says are illegal.

"Our goal here is to fund the Department of Homeland Security. And our second goal is to stop the president's executive overreach," Boehner told reporters.

Boehner, however, declined to say whether he would bring a "clean" DHS funding bill to the floor if the newly Republican-controlled Senate fails to pass the House measure or if Obama vetoes it over immigration-related provisions.

Republicans also plan an amendment aimed at reversing Obama's 2012 initiative deferring action against immigrants brought into the United States illegally as children. If passed, it could put hundreds of thousands of people at risk of deportation.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0KM1NK20150113

Now off to the Senate which will show US the true colors and skill sets of our Republicans there. Lets hope they come together and collectively have the leadership abilities to convince a handful of Democrats that legalizing illegal aliens regardless of age or circumstance is not a legal act by a President, this one or any other.

Lets keep the pressure on.

Thank you ALIPAC!

It would be great if this could pass. But,
Not likely to pass in the senate.
And if it does Obama will veto it
and they don't have to votes to over ride a veto.
So this all just a show for the voters back home
so they can say, "We tried".

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

John Boehner is doing this by way of amendment to funding bills because that is the least exciting and least attention getting way for him to fake his resistance to Obama.
W

To paraphrase Billy Shakespeare, it's a tale told by a treacherous sellout, signifying nothing.

If the media would do their job - compare words to actions, explore consequences - it would be easy to see that 'Bama is selling out Americans, to get the votes of his precious Undocumented Democrats. In his 2006 autobiography, “The Audacity of Hope:Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.”
'Bama said, “The number of immigrants added to the labor force everyyear is of a magnitude not seen in this country for over a century.". If this huge influx of mostly low-skill workers provides somebenefits to the economy as a whole... it alsothreatens to depress further the wages of blue-collar Americans andput strains on an already overburdened safety net.”

The Repub leadership is using 'Bama as cover, to get their big money donors the surplus labor and open borders that those donors covet.

Again, easy to expose, if the mainstream media actually wanted to do their jobs.
***************************************
Americans first in this magnificent country

American jobs for American workers

Fair trade, not free trade

By restricting funds to the DHS, Earnest argued that Republicans were effectively blocking funding for border enforcement and returning to a broken immigration system.

Uuuh no, we're blocking funding for anti-border enforcement, money paid to agencies to do the opposite of enforcing law, and restricting funds from agencies instructed by the President to ignore the law.

Our immigration system isn't broken, our politicians and White House are broken, they've broken their word, violated their oaths, usurped our law, and betrayed the very hard-working Americans who elected them to their high offices and who pay for their high-flying livelihoods and pensions.

It's at moments like this that my mind wanders to the French Revolution, and I can actually understand why they were so tough on their nobles and elites.

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

I still want to know how legislation is supposed to reign in a President that refuses to honor existing legislation?

John Boehner is doing this by way of amendment to funding bills because that is the least exciting and least attention getting way for him to fake his resistance to Obama.

If impeachment proceedings were begun it would attract a great deal of attention and Republicans would find themselves winning against Obama with a large majority of the American population.

But that correct course of action would also shut down and cancel all attempts to give illegals amnesty because most Americans oppose that too!

W

MR GHEEN
IM SO SICK OF ALL THIS THEY COULD IMPEACHED OBAMA LONG BEFOR THIS NOT ONE GOV HAVE THE BACK BONE TO DO IT
YOU DON'T NEED A PINK SLIP AT ALL JUST A PAPER & HAND IT OVER TO OBAMA & SAY YOUR NOT DOING YOUR JOB AT ALL OUR COUNTRY IS I ONE HELL OF A MESS THEY KNOW THIS . WHY THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS HAVE EVERY THING .LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING THE OTHER DAY THE HOSPITAL CALL * ASK WHEN ARE WE PAYING OUR BILL .WELL I SAID WHEN THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS START & PAY . I WILL PAY MY BILL NOT UNTILL THEY GET EVERY THING & WE HAVE TO PAY I DON'T THINK SO