House votes to overturn Obama immigration actions; bill now goes to Senate
House votes to overturn Obama immigration actions; bill now goes to Senate
Published January 14, 2015 FoxNews.com
House Republicans voted Wednesday to overturn President Obama's controversial immigration actions, despite deep Democratic opposition and an uncertain fate for the bill in the Senate.
The House voted 237-190 on legislation to fund the Homeland Security Department through the rest of the budget year to the tune of $40 billion. But as part of that legislation, Republicans approved provisions to gut the president's immigration directives.
One amendment would undo executive actions Obama announced in November that provided temporary deportation relief, and offer work permits, to some 4 million illegal immigrants. Another amendment would cancel Obama's 2012 policy that's granted work permits and stays of deportation to more than 600,000 immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally as kids.
Republicans say Obama's moves amounted to an unconstitutional overreach that must be stopped.
"We do not take this action lightly, but simply there is no alternative," House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday. "It's not a dispute between the parties or even between the branches of our government. This executive overreach is an affront to the rule of law and to the Constitution itself."
But Democratic leaders claimed the GOP provisions would hurt immigrant families -- and ultimately hurt Republicans politically.
"The amendments ... that the Republicans are tacking onto the bill, or at least trying to tack onto the bill, to keep the Department of Homeland Security open are inconsistent with our nation's values and its history. They would tear families apart," House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said.
Even with Republicans in control of the Senate the bill faces tough chances there, especially because House GOP leaders decided to satisfy demands from conservative members by including a vote to undo the 2012 policy that deals with younger immigrants known as "Dreamers." The amendment, which is opposed by some of the more moderate Republicans in the House, would ultimately expose those young people to deportation.
Security-minded lawmakers on both sides of the aisle also are worried about using the DHS funding bill to wage the immigration fight, saying security funding should not be put at risk, particularly in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. Current DHS funding expires at the end of next month.
In the Senate, Republicans would have to rally a 60-vote majority to advance the legislation, and they have only 54 members.
With even some Republicans voicing reservations, the Senate may have to strip out the immigration provisions and send a straight DHS funding bill back to the House, as the Feb. 27 deadline looms.
This, then, could set up another fight between GOP leadership and the conservative reaches of the party.
One senior House GOP aide told Fox News, "I don't know how this one ends."
Some House Republicans acknowledged that the Senate is likely to reject their approach, perhaps forcing them in the end to pass a Homeland Security funding bill stripped of the immigration provisions.
"They're not going to pass this bill," Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., said in predicting the Senate outcome.
Obama has threatened to veto the House bill, and Democrats roundly denounced it, even as immigrant advocates warned Republicans they risked alienating Latino voters who will be crucial to the 2016 presidential election.
"Just two weeks into this new Congress, Republicans have turned a bipartisan issue, funding our Department of Homeland Security, into a cesspool of despicable amendments that cater to the most extremist anti-immigrant fringe," Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., said in a House debate.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015...oes-to-senate/
White House: Republicans Defunding Executive Amnesty ‘Essentially a Vote For Amnesty’
by Charlie Spiering
14 Jan 2015
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest used a bit of colorful language aboard Air Force One this afternoon, calling on Republicans to stop “mucking around” with the Department of Homeland Security funding bill.
“House Republicans … are mucking around with DHS funding just weeks before the funding deadline,” Earnest said.
“There’s never a good time to muck around with the funding of the Department of Homeland Security, but given the events of the last week, this seems like a particularly bad time to do so,” he added alluding to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.
Republicans, led by House Speaker John Boehner, passed the funding bill earlier today. It includes an amendment to defund President Obama’s executive amnesty. House Republicans also passed an amendment killing Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Earnest argued that the bill passed by the House was unlikely to get enough Democrat support in the Senate.
By restricting funds to the DHS, Earnest argued that Republicans were effectively blocking funding for border enforcement and returning to a broken immigration system.
“This vote is bad policy. It is essentially a vote for amnesty. It is also bad politics,” he said.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...e-for-amnesty/
Limbaugh On Boehner Amnesty Tough Talk: ‘Is All Of This Just For Show?’
5:07 PM 01/14/2015
Al Weaver
On his Wednesday program, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh questioned whether Speaker John Boehner’s recent tough talk on President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration is “just for show” or if he’s actually “following through” on his rhetoric.
On the House floor Wednesday morning prior to their vote on the Department of Homeland Security, Boehner read aloud for nearly five minutes the 22 times Obama intimated that he was unable to go it alone on immigration reform via executive reforms.
“To think that the president of the United States studied constitutional law!” Boehner said lambasting Obama. “He didn’t just learn constitutional law. He taught it himself.”
“Enough is enough!” Boehner added.
However, Limbaugh was skeptical of Boehner’s sudden anti-amnesty rhetoric. The conservative titan told his audience that what happens after either Obama vetoes the bill or it dies in the Senate, which does not fund segments of DHS that deal with Obama’s executive action, will be “the moment of truth.”
“I think the House is gonna pass a bill. I don’t know what the Senate’s gonna do, but I know Obama’s gonna veto it, and I know that that will then be the moment of truth,” Limbaugh said.
“That’s when we’re gonna find out what the House Republican leadership is all about, after Obama vetoes it. In other words, is all of this just for show for us?” Limbaugh explained.
“It won’t be long before we find out. By ‘us’ I mean conservatives who keep electing Republicans, keep demanding that they finally get in gear and stop this stuff,” Limbaugh said. “Are they just playing games with us or do they really now understand what we want and are prepared to act on it? There’s a lot of doubt about that.”
http://dailycaller.com/2015/01/14/li...just-for-show/
