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Published January 09, 2015

Jan. 9, 2015: House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., is surrounded by reporters on Capitol Hill following a closed-door meeting with House Republicans.(AP)

House Republicans are expanding their push to take on President Obama's immigration policies, looking to block not only his recently announced executive actions but also a 2012 program shielding immigrants brought illegally to this country as children.

GOP lawmakers crafted their game-plan on Friday in the hopes of putting related budget legislation to a House vote next week. Under the recently struck budget deal, the Department of Homeland Security is only funded through Feb. 27 -- and Republicans want to use the deadline as leverage to block the president's immigration policies.

But the working plan goes further than the approach initially discussed by some House Republicans. That approach would have taken aim just at executive actions Obama announced in November that provided deportation protections for millions of immigrants in the country illegally -- mostly the illegal immigrant parents of legal residents.

Conservatives in the GOP caucus pressed leadership to go further, and shut down an earlier 2012 program that has granted work permits to more than 500,000 immigrants brought here illegally as kids.

Other changes would undo Obama directives to immigration agents that had sought to limit deportations of people with no significant criminal record.

Conservative lawmakers said their plan would combat the president's "lawlessness."

Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., predicted the approach would "garner a lot of support among our colleagues when the leadership brings this bill forward."

The outcome won't have the support of a handful of moderates in the caucus, including lawmakers representing heavily Latino districts.

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House Republicans expand push to undo Obama immigration actions

Sub-freezing temperatures continue in on Capitol Hill in Washington early Friday morning, Jan. 9, 2015.

J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

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Last week the new Congress began with the Republicans controlling both houses for the first time since 2005. Differences between the two appeared on opening day.

In the Senate, there was apparent party unity. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would look for ways to move ahead on programs and projects that had widespread public support, avoiding major confrontations, financial defaults and government shutdowns. His first legislative action will be a vote on approval of the Keystone pipeline, which enjoys polling support from 70 percent of the American people. He said his goal is to set the table for the Republican nominee in 2016, whoever that may be, by legislating in a way that will show the country that Republicans can govern responsibly. He doesnt want the idea of having them in overall charge to be scary to voters when the presidential election comes around.

In the House, party unity fell apart. John Boehner had been chosen as party leader without a single dissenting vote when House Republicans held their leadership elections, so he had every reason to assume that he would have every Republican vote in the opening session when the speaker was formally elected. However, several national tea party groups had other ideas.

Realizing that Boehner could be denied the speakership if a relatively few Republicans voted against him all of the Democrats would be voting for Nancy Pelosi these groups mounted a major blitz of emails, tweets and phone calls directed to their supporters in the House. Defeat Boehner; show the establishment whos boss!

Tea party House members who had raised no objection to Boehner during party elections changed their minds and joined in a totally futile effort to topple him. They had no candidate to replace him, no plan for running the House if he were defeated, no goal other than to show their loyalty to the groups that were bombarding them with social media pressure. They embarrassed themselves, falling far short of the number they needed. Boehner was elected easily, with every member of the Utah delegation voting for him.

Nonetheless, the groups behind the effort declared it a success. Were very pleased, one spokesman said. One suspects that the reason they are pleased is that they were able to use their advocacy of this manufactured opportunity to raise money from supporters who didnt realize that it was a fools errand, precisely the kind of action that undecided voters would find scary in 2016.

The details of this episode will of course be long forgotten before then, but Speaker Boehner and the rest of the Republicans must do everything they can to make sure that similar episodes do not occur.

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