It did not take long after President Obama made his announcement in November rolling out his executive order concerning before his political opponents began to threaten to stop it. A few wanted to shut down the government. Others wanted to add conditions to a needed budget deal that would invalidate the President’s order. Eventually the budget did pass but it only funded the department charged with overseeing the immigration order for two months instead of a full year. The rationale for the truncated appropriation for the Department of Homeland Security was that members of the majority Republican caucus in Congress would fight the battle in February when the need for extending the appropriation for a full term would arise.
But now the new Minority Leader in the Senate, Harry Reid of Nevada, has made it clear that the House bill to defund the department will not get through the Senate. The entire Senate Democratic caucus signed a letter Tuesday afternoon to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) expressing support for Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has demanded a “clean” bill to fund DHS without any riders prohibiting the department from implementing the provisions of the President’s order.
In the letter, the Democratic Senators stated, “Democratic Leader Harry Reid has called for a clean funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. The President has also made clear that he will veto any bill that expressly limits his authority to exercise prosecutorial discretion on immigration matters. “While we agree our current immigration system needs comprehensive reform, including border security enhancements, this appropriations bill is not the place for this debate.”
While the controversy will not be resolved until February, Republicans in the Senate would need six Democratic Senators to join them in order to pass the House bill. Because of overseas terrorist activities during the last several weeks, many view it as politically difficult at this time not to fund the department charged with keeping the country safe.
The Shulman Law Group endeavors to ensure its clients be kept abreast of all significant developments relating to the process of immigration to the United States, including the manner in which parallel legal proceedings may impact immigrants.. Edward Shulman, Esq, founder of The Shulman Law Group, LLC is a national speaker for the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). AILA is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, and to advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice. In the course of Mr. Shulman’s involvement with AILA, he has been dedicated to educating other immigration attorneys about the import of helping intending immigrants to navigate a new cultural system. He meticulously follows all of the developments occurring in the battle over immigration reform so that he will be prepared to effectively assist his clients obtain residency if a new system is enacted.