End of the DHS Saga

Press Release

Late last year the House was confronted with two challenges. One was making sure appropriation bills were passed that would keep the U.S. government functioning. The other: Thwarting President Obama's unconstitutional order to provide legal status and work permits to 5 million people illegally in our country. It was unconstitutional because it was, as he admitted 22 times last year, that he doesn't have the authority to change America's immigration policy without approval from Congress. Unless blocked he would be setting the precedent that the executive not the legislative branch has authority over making federal policy . . . directly contradicting what our Founding Fathers intended and enshrined into our Constitution.

The President, who cares less about rule of law and our Constitution, brazenly stood his ground. The House leadership, weary of the shutdown of the entire federal government, decide to pass the funding for every department, except for the Department of Homeland Security which was responsible for border control and immigration policies. If a compromise could not be reached we were promised a major confrontation with the President. In the meantime a court ruled against the President's immigration orders. That case is now going through the appellate process.

After the Senate stripped the House bill of any immigration provisions, we were trying to find a way to salvage what we could out of the tough bill we had passed earlier. Then, when the House Republican leadership asked for a 3 week postponement of the vote for DHS funding, I felt it was a reasonable request, seeing that court action was possible in that time. 52 of my House GOP colleagues disagreed and voted with the Democrats against the 3 week extension. When finally the decision was made, the Democrats and Republicans in the House voted for a one week extension. After that one week there was only one option, voting for or against the Senate bill to fund the DHS with no immigration provisions included. I voted along with 167 other Republicans not to fund the DHS until the immigration issue has been addressed. Had we had 2 more weeks there is no certainty that any better deal could have been made but we would have lost nothing by trying.

Illegal immigration has been a priority issue for me over the last 20 years. It will require both strategic politics and principled motivation to get this job done. The court case is still moving forward. Congress must do what it can, because we too are limited by the Constitution when the President is in opposition.

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