House Votes to Block President’s Immigration Policies

Speaker of the House John Boehner speaking in support of  de-funding Immigration Deferment on the House floor on Wednesday.
Speaker of the House John Boehner speaking in support of de-funding Immigration Deferment on the House floor on Wednesday.

The House of Representatives voted today to block President Obama’s immigration policies in a 236-191 vote to end the program to defer deportation of 500,000 young immigrants. The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate.

The U.S. House, led by Speaker John Boehner attached the bill to the must pass bill funding the Department of Homeland Security and are basically daring the president to veto the bill, thus causing the shut-down of that agency. The agency will run out of funding next month.

The de-funding bill for the president’s immigration reform was widely opposed by the democratic side of the aisle with only two democrats voting for the bill. Meanwhile, ten House Republicans voted in opposition to the bill.

Speaker of the House Boehner said after the vote, “The president’s overreach is an affront to the rule of law and the Constitution itself, well, enough is enough. When we said this would not stand, we meant it.”

The White House has been very critical of the House for its passage of the bill and the ploy of attaching it to the Homeland Security Funding bill. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement, “There’s never a good time to muck around with the funding of the Department of Homeland Security, but given the events of last week this seems like a particularly bad time to do so.”

Rank and file House Republicans said that if the funding for Homeland Security is held up that it would be the president’s fault.

The bill’s passage in the Senate is in doubt, where the Republicans hold only 54 seat majority. 60 votes would be needed for passage. Meaning, Senate Republicans would need to garner the two Independent votes plus another four votes from the democratic side of the aisle.

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Alaska’s lone representative to the House, Rep. Don Young, said in a statement after the vote, “When this Administration announced its controversial plans to defer deportations for millions of illegal immigrants, I pledged to use my seat in the House of Representatives to push back. Today, alongside my colleagues, I delivered on that promise. H.R. 240 represents a stark contrast to the President’s ‘pen and phone’ approach to addressing immigration policy in this nation.” Young continued, saying, “I urge my colleagues in the Senate and the President to swiftly consider and enact this bill into law.”