How serious are Republicans about their promise to stop President Obama’s executive actions granting work permits and Social Security cards to millions of people in the country illegally?
We’re about to find out.
When the president issued his latest royal decree after the mid-term election, it wasn’t the first time he had bypassed Congress in rewriting the country’s immigration laws. And it was further evidence that GOP candidates on the campaign trail had been right when they talked about the importance of giving them a majority in Congress so they could checkmate Obama’s proclivities to make and change laws on his own.
But now there are growing concerns that Republicans in the Senate, despite being in the majority, aren’t up for the battle. One of the most talked about strategies for stopping Obama’s executive actions was to simply not give him or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the money to implement them. Congress has the constitutional authority to fund or not to fund government activities, often referred to as the “power of the purse.” In this case, Congress could deny funding and resources for DHS that would be used for Obama’s executive amnesty.
The House passed such a measure and the Senate now has until the end of February to do the same. Naturally, the White House is threatening a veto if such legislation comes to the president’s desk and Democrats in the Senate are promising to use a filibuster to keep the bill from coming to the Senate floor.
But none of this should be surprising. Democrats are simply preparing to use whatever tactics and measures they have in their arsenal to keep Obama’s power grab intact.
The question is whether Republicans are willing to do the same to stop him.
A new poll out just last week shows a majority of registered voters also support Congress taking action to defund Obama’s amnesty efforts.
A number of legislative strategies, as outlined in this Heritage Action memo, are at their disposal – not the least of which is calling the Democrats’ bluff on a filibuster, thereby putting them in the position of saying work permits and Social Security numbers for illegal immigrants are more important than funding the Department of Homeland Security.
Additionally, there is more than one current Democratic senator on record saying they disagreed with Obama’s executive overreach.
Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.): “It is clear the immigration system in this country is broken, and only Congress has the ability to change the law to fix it…I am as frustrated as anyone that Congress is not doing its job, but the president shouldn’t make such significant policy changes on his own.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.): “Our immigration system is broken, and I support a comprehensive plan to fix it, but executive orders aren’t the way to do it.”
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.): “It’s Congress’ job to pass legislation and deal with issues of this magnitude.”
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine): “I worry that his taking unilateral action could in fact inflame public opinion, change the subject from immigration to the president. I also have constitutional concerns about where prosecutorial discretion ends and unconstitutional executive authority begins.” (King, an Independent, caucuses with Senate Democrats.)
No matter the legislative strategy used, this is a battle the GOP can win by engaging the American public. Poll after poll has shown the majority of Americans oppose Obama’s executive amnesty. And a new poll out just last week shows a majority of registered voters also support Congress taking action to defund Obama’s efforts.
Here was the question: “The Republicans in Congress say that the president’s action is unlawful and violates federal law which blocks illegal immigrants from holding jobs in the United States. They have said they may take away federal funding so this order cannot be carried out. Do you support or oppose Republicans in Congress taking away federal funding for this executive order?”
Among all respondents, 53 percent said they supported Republicans taking away the funding. And it wasn’t just Republican voters saying so: 54 percent of independents agreed.
Bottom line: the GOP had no trouble taking their case to the American public about the need to stop Obama’s executive overreach on immigration, and their commitment to stopping it, when it came to using that argument to win votes. Now that they control Congress, we’ll see just how serious their promises were.
