The inside-the-Beltway publication Politico reported today:
Hill Republicans have all but surrendered the fight against President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
Despite holding majorities in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate and despite electoral results which indicate those majorities were won in part to block President Obama’s illegal alien amnesty, GOP leaders are waiving the white flag.
“The avenue that we took last time was a losing battle, and we knew it was a losing battle going into it,” said Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), the man writing this year’s DHS funding bill. “There might be other things we can figure out. We’re putting our heads together on that — but it won’t be what we did last time because what we did last time won’t win.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner want to focus on garnering bi-partisan consensus on issues like trade, cybersecurity and Iran rather than fight another ideological battle over illegal immigration and separation of powers.
Apparently, it is not only the leadership which has lost the stomach for the fight against Obama’s executive actions.
Case in point: Last November, Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.) circulated a letter that called for banning money to fund Obama’s executive actions, which garnered more than 60 GOP signatures and helped create momentum to push House Republicans toward a DHS funding standoff.
Then in late March — a few weeks after the DHS showdown ended — Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) wrote a similar letter demanding provisions to block funding for the Obama administration’s immigration initiatives. That missive got just 14 co-signers, although Gosar insists there are more now.
Instead of making the fight in the legislature, Senate Republicans are counting on the courts to do their work for them.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said there’s no need to use DHS as a vehicle for an immigration fight again. “I think the courts will decide in our favor,” he added.
“I think first we have to see what happens with the court case,” said Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who chairs the Homeland Security appropriations subcommittee in the Senate.
House leaders would not even go that far saying other lawsuits would do the job and they felt no need to add another one.
A last ditch tactic to defund Obama’s illegal executive orders could be through a giant, must-pass spending bill. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) outlines this approach:
For example, Salmon said he would rather force measures to unravel the executive actions if government funding were ultimately wrapped up in one, all-encompassing omnibus bill later in the fiscal year. That, Salmon said, would give hard-liners more leverage.
But when asked about whether there was a broader appetite among House Republicans to attack the immigration actions through funding, Salmon conceded: “Not that I know of.”
Five months was all it took to get a complete surrender on amnesty.
