Tonight, the House passed a one-week extension of funding for the Department of Homeland Security and the Senate followed suit. The votes capped off a volatile day in which, for the most part, Republicans fought to defund President Obama’s executive amnesties after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McMonnell, R-Ky., caved to Democrats who had been blocking the agency's funding.
The Senate passed a DHS spending bill after Senators succeeded in stripping language that would have defunded President Obama’s executive amnesties. Going back on their deal with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Democrats blocked from consideration separate legislation to defund the executive amnesty announced on 11/20/14. Meanwhile, the House failed to pass a continuing resolution that would extend funding for the Homeland Security Department through March 19th. Speaker John Boehner will continue to seek votes tonight as the midnight funding deadline looms.
The Senate began a number of votes this morning on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, including on one amendment to strip House-passed language that defunds the president’s executive amnesties. The existing DHS continuing resolution expires at midnight tonight. The House is scheduled to take up another continuing resolution today to avert a funding gap.
Senate Democrats accepted Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) deal yesterday to end their filibuster of the House-passed DHS funding bill, H.R.240. By a 98-to-2 margin, the Senate approved a procedural motion, allowing the bill to come to the floor. McConnell is expected to offer an amendment today that would strip out the two immigration amendments inserted by the House before moving to a final vote on the bill.
Reports from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) show that they have not been able to fill the 34,000 detention beds with illegal aliens as the law requires. The department, which serves as the interior enforcement and deportation arm of the Department of Homeland Security, was averaging just 27,000 detainees a day for fiscal 2015 as of Jan. 25. That means that over 20% of ICE's capacity is going unused thus far.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced a plan on Tuesday that would allow a vote on a "clean" DHS funding bill that would fully fund Pres. Obama's unconstitutional amnesties. The plan hinges on a possible deal with Senate Democrats that would require them to allow debate on a separate measure that would defund the president's 2014 executive amnesties. The move came a day after Senate Democrats, along with Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), blocked debate on the House-passed DHS funding bill, H.R.240.
One of the country's former top statewide elected African American officials is using his national syndicated column to contrast Black History Month with the President's insistence on flooding the labor market with more foreign labor.
In an open letter to Congress, the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) invoked the memory of the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan (D-Texas) by calling on Members of Congress "to not only stop but to reverse the illegal over reach of this administration" on immigration. Barbara Jordan chaired the bipartisan commission that made several recommendations to Congress, including reducing overall immigration numbers and strengthening interior enforcement.
The Center for Immigration Studies released more data today on the amount of work permits issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) above and beyond the legal limits set by Congress. The data show that between 2009 and 2014, USCIS issued more than 7.4 million work permits to individuals who would not automatically receive a work permit because they were either in the country illegally or entered the U.S. on a visa that didn't include one.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest on Friday said the Justice Department will seek an emergency stay to block a federal court ruling that freezes implementation of the president’s executive amnesty. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s injunction temporarily prohibited the issuance of work permits and other documents to certain illegal aliens and blocked spending for the program’s planning.