The United States House of Representatives voted along party lines to oppose President Obama’s executive actions on immigration stating that the president overstepped his powers in creating deportation relief programs for millions of undocumented immigrants. A case on those actions is set to be heard by the Supreme Court next month. With a rare move by the House, the chamber voted 234-186 to allow Speaker Paul Ryan to file an amicus brief in the case.
The vote drew opposition from immigration groups and had no support from Democratic House members with even five Republicans, Reps. Carlos Curbelo, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida; Rep. Bob Dold of Illinois and Rep. Richard Hanna of New York, also voted against it.
The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for April 18 to consider the government’s appeal of a lower court decision blocking the president’s immigration executive action. His action authorized the expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA and creating of a similar program for immigrant parents here illegally and who have U.S. citizen or legal resident children here. Both programs would shield millions of immigrants from deportation and permit them to work.
“The legislative branch needs to be writing the laws, not the executive branch, and certainly not a branch of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats,” stated Speaker Ryan about the case. Adding that “I am prepared to make our case.”
Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Xavier Becerra blasted the GOP’s decision to vote to file the brief. Senate and House Democrats filed one as well last week which was signed by 186 House members and 39 senators, individually, “separate from official duty,” Becerra said. He accused Republicans of using and wasting taxpayer time and money with the vote.
“They are looking to use taxpayer money to push forward their partisan agenda and their position in this case of U.S. vs. Texas. They are injecting every American who pays taxes into this fight even though most Americans support a comprehensive fix to our immigration laws,” he said before the vote.
“It seems, these days, that Republicans in Congress spend more time and taxpayer money filing partisan lawsuits and legal briefs than trying to pass the country’s must-do legislation, like the budget or a jobs bill or even commonsense immigration reform,” Becerra said.
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