Republicans again propose blocking Obama’s immigration orders

Washington Post

By Kelsey Snell

July 8, 2015

Republicans again propose blocking Obama’s immigration orders

House Republicans are looking to use another annual spending bill to make sure President Obama can’t follow through on his executive actions to indefinitely postpone deportation of some undocumented immigrants.

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday released a draft Homeland Security funding bill that includes language that would prevent the Obama administration from enforcing executive actions on immigration he issued in November 2014 until a court decides if the orders are legal.

“This bill rejects the President’s attempt to undermine our laws and uses the tax payers’ dollars in a fiscally responsible manner,” Homeland Security Subcommittee Chairman John Carter (R-Texas) said in a statement.

The bill would require the Homeland Security Department to enforce all immigration laws as written and disregard any executive actions that have not been approved by Congress. If enacted, the measure would have no immediate impact on DHS activities because a federal judge has already ordered the agency not to act on the executive order until the court process is complete.

The immigration fight has been a tricky issue for Republicans. Earlier this year conservatives tried to block fiscal 2015 funding for the department until Democrats agreed to a vote on Obama’s immigration orders. That bid failed and created a headache for GOP leaders who eventually had to back down and allow the homeland security funding to clear Congress without language challenging the president’s executive orders.

But the 2016 appropriations process is providing opportunity to press the issue again.

Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats appear no closer to a deal to end their standoff over funding levels for the appropriations bills.

The White House has threatened to veto any spending bill that adheres to the Republican approved funding levels and Democrats in the Senate have vowed to block votes on appropriations bills until Republicans agree to lift spending caps put in place by the 2011 Budget Control Act, also known as the sequester, so that more funding can be provided for domestic programs.

But this isn’t stopping Republicans from advancing their spending bills through Congress and making clear they want to use the legislation to challenge the president’s regulatory policies and executive orders.

Nearly all of the fiscal 2016 funding bills working their way through the House and the Senate are filled with attempts to block or defund Obama administration priorities. Republicans are taking aim at a wide variety of issues, including environmental rules, the effort to renew diplomatic ties with Cuba and a Labor Department proposal to crackdown on the retirement investment industry.

House Republicans also added language to the House Commerce, Justice, Science spending bill that would seek to block the Justice Department from defending the immigration case in court.

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