Republicans offer Obama choice between immigration reform and counter-terror funding
Isabel Aguilar, right, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill about immigration reform. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP
A fresh clash between the House of Representatives and the White House over immigration reform has thrown future funding for the Department of Homeland Security into doubt, including funding for counter-terrorism programs.
Despite heightened security fears following attacks in Paris, Republicans placed themselves on a collision course with Barack Obama by passing five amendments to the homeland security budget that the White House has already said it would refuse to sign if they are attached.
Existing funding for the department expires at the end of February, after Congress separated it from the rest of the annual federal budget to give critics of immigration reform a chance to hitch their cause to what was seen as a must-pass legislation once Republicans took full control of both chambers.
But since then, terror attacks in France and Australia have raised the stakes by threatening to disrupt security funding at a time of high alert. The US State Department last week issued a worldwide caution that US citizens were at risk.
The White House, however, has shown no sign of being willing to blink in its standoff with Republicans over immigration.
The administration strongly opposes the addition of any amendments to the legislation that would place restrictions on the departments ability to set smart enforcement priorities focused on criminals, national security threats, and recent border crossers, hold undocumented immigrants accountable, and modernise the legal immigration system, said a White House policy statement on 12 January.
If presented to the president with objectionable restrictions, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto this bill.
Despite this, the Republican-controlled House passed five amendments on Wednesday morning by clear margins, including measures that would not just defund the presidents recent executive actions on undocumented adult migrants, but also unpick his earlier action on so-called dreamers, the US-raised children of such migrants.
Democrats slammed the tactic during debates leading up to the vote, claiming it was holding national security to ransom in pursuit of an entirely unrelated issue.
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Republicans offer Obama choice between immigration reform and counter-terror funding