Witnesses speak at the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on border
enforcement and illegal immigration in Washington, D.C. From left to
right: the Honorable Paul Babeu from Pinal County, AZ; Temple
University law professor Jan Ting; Center for Immigration Studies
expert Jessica Vaughan and Migration Policy Institute expert Marc
Rosenblum. (Yunita Ong/MNS)
WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats blocked a bill Tuesday that would have overturned President Barack Obama’s order loosening immigration restrictions, a move that leave the Department of Homeland Security funding in question.
Three GOP senators, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, voted against the bill with the Democrats , 51-48. The House-approved legislation would have overturned the president’s plan to let some undocumented children and the parents of citizens and legal residents stay and work in the U.S.
McConnell voted “no” to keep his ability to bring the legislation back to the floor. Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., missed the vote due to travel issues.
Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., joined all the Senate Democrats in voting against the legislation. “The bill before us today only includes language that complicates the process of finding a solution,” Heller told the Las Vegas Sun after the vote. The Senate needed 60 votes to break a threatened filibuster and move the measure toward final passage.
The Fair Immigration Reform Movement “praises all the lawmakers who believe these immoral attacks on immigrant families are irresponsible governing that is also bad for our economy and our nation as a whole,” said spokeswoman Kica Matos.
But, on the other side of the immigration debate, the Federation of American Immigration Reform was “disappointed, but the House now needs to stand firm to keep the provisions that would block the immigration action in any DHS funding bill.”
In January, the House of Representatives passed a Department of Homeland Security funding bill with amendments that would block Obama’s executive action to let up to 5 million undocumented immigrants stay and work here. It was that bill that the Senate failed to pass Tuesday.
The Department of Homeland Security only has congressional approval for funding through the end of February. If Congress doesn’t vote to continue funding, front-line workers would have to work without pay, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Tuesday morning.
House Republicans and Democrats clawed at each other through the day over the border security and immigration reform.
“We will act to ensure that the president cannot unilaterally shut down immigration enforcement in this country,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, which he chairs.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-Mich., also criticized what he claimed to be President Obama’s “selective enforcement of immigration laws.”
House Democrat John Conyers said Goodlatte was attacking the president without offering concrete policy solutions.
“This hearing only addresses the issue of enforcement rather than opportunities for our undocumented population,” Conyers said during the session.
Earlier in the day, House Speaker John Boehner urged Senate Republicans to push the legislation forward: “It’s time for Senator Cruz, Senator Sessions, Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats to stand with the American people and to block the president’s actions.”
The White House has said the president would veto such a bill, calling for a “clean” DHS funding bill.
“We’ve got to put our politics aside,” the president said on Monday while unveiling his $4 trillion budget for 2016.
