A bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security threw a bright light on the sharp divide the Republican party faces in dealing with the issue of immigration reform and the nation’s population of unlawful immigrants.
House Republicans nearly defeated one of a series of provisions attached to the DHS bill that aim to curb recent presidential executive actions on immigration.
The amendment, authored by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., would roll back Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), an executive action that allows people who arrived in the United States illegally as children to obtain work permits and avoid deportation.
Republicans intended the amendment to send a message to President Obama from the GOP that it opposes his unilateral action on immigration, which many Republicans consider unconstitutional.
But the provision passed with just a bare majority of 218 votes, teetering perilously close to defeat thanks to dozens of Republicans who voted with Democrats to oppose it.
“I think it was a bridge too far,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who voted against the amendment, told the Washington Examiner.
Kinzinger and 25 other Republicans banded together against defunding DACA in a move they say was aimed at sending a message to the GOP leadership that they want the party to take on comprehensive immigration reform despite opposition from the party’s most conservative voting bloc, which has stood in the way.
“There are people here that really want to address the issue,” Kinzinger told the Examiner. “With the DACA vote, we send a message that it’s time we start offering solutions.”
Kinzinger said while he is opposed to Obama’s implementing DACA through executive action, he voted against the amendment to roll it back because it could prompt the deportation of tens of thousands of young people who have already registered with the federal government to be part of the program over the past two years.
Unlike Obama’s November executive action allowing more than 5 million people to obtain work permits and some federal benefits, the DACA program is actually supported by many Republicans who believe people brought here illegally as children shouldn’t be deported.
But the issue underscores a festering divide in the GOP.
Last year, GOP leaders, led by then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., authored DACA-like legislation, but it never came to the floor for a vote due to conservative backlash.
Cantor in May lost his primary to a more conservative candidate, Rep. Dave Brat, who campaigned against Cantor’s support of the immigration measure. Cantor’s loss reinforced the notion among some Republicans that any immigration overhaul beyond bolstering border security is a nonstarter with the conservative base.
With Republicans now in control of both the House and Senate, however, the GOP has pledged to renew its effort to take up immigration reform.
But beyond talk of legislation to strengthen the nation’s borders, no formal plans have been announced as GOP leaders feel out the rank and file.
Republicans hope to start tackling the issue beginning Thursday, when they hold a joint House-Senate GOP retreat in Hershey, Pa.
Republican leaders in those closed-door talks are likely to face a familiar, divisive scene, with conservatives pledging to oppose both “amnesty” legislation and measures to increase foreign visas and work permits.
More moderate Republicans, however, are expected to voice support for taking action this year, ahead of the 2016 election when the Hispanic vote could be critical in the election of the next president.
“The reality is, the only way we are going to be able to deal with president’s executive orders or border security is to pass legislation that tackles these issues, and it’s going to have to be done in some bipartisan way,” said Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida. “Because that’s just the math here.”
Republicans are unlikely to leave the retreat with a firm path forward on immigration, but they have to at least decide what to do about the DHS spending bill, a $40 billion measure that pays for the Transportation Security Agency, the border patrol and customs and immigration enforcement, among other things.
While the bill passed the House, Senate Republicans are unlikely to come up with the six Democrats needed to stop a filibuster and a subsequent spending showdown over the DHS spending.
That means the GOP will likely have to pass the legislation without the amendments that block Obama’s executive actions or risk the agency’s running dry of funds when a stopgap spending bill expires Feb. 27.
Embittered conservatives on Wednesday seemed resigned to the idea that Republican leaders will eventually give up on curbing Obama’s executive actions in order to avoid the threat of reduced spending on DHS.
“These are folks who are scared of the president’s shadow on these things,” Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kansas, told the Examiner.
