Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he will work with Democrats to pass a “clean” version of the bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Absent an agreement, funding would run out on Friday, Feb. 28.
McConnell’s concession came after Senate Democrats filibustered a DHS funding bill four times because it had amendments that would defund President Barack Obama’s deferred action programs for illegal immigrants. A “clean” funding bill would not include those provisions.
McConnell also introduced a separate bill that would defund the president’s immigration programs. The bill would be largely symbolic because McConnell said he would be “happy” to let the clean DHS funding bill be passed first, leaving the GOP with no leverage to pass the defund bill.
The Legal Route
“With this federal court injunction in place, any money for the DHS will not go fund the president’s illegal action,” Cornyn said. “What we need to do this week is to fund the DHS.”
The president’s November immigration action, which would shield five million illegal immigrants from deportation and grant them work permits, triggered a lawsuit from Texas and twenty-five other states against the Obama administration.
Last Monday, a district court judge issued a temporary suspension of the president’s deferred action programs created in November, but the injunction could still be overturned by a higher court.
The Department of Justice has already appealed the injunction, and is expected to file an emergency appeal to the Fifth District Court of Appeals on Wednesday.
Parts of the November immigration policies are still in place, and border patrol agents are still discouraged from detaining low-priority illegal immigrants crossing the border. The injunction only targeted policies that might cause “irreparable harm” by granting illegal immigrants quasi-legal status that is difficult to reverse.
A clean DHS funding bill would still require approval from House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who has repeatedly spoken against a clean DHS bill, as have scores of House Republicans.
