New Republican Plan: Defund Border Security

Republican leaders want to squelch President Obama's immigration executive action. But they don't want a shutdown.

They would like to just defund Obama's deportation relief, but the agency carrying it out, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is funded by its own fees, not tax dollars controlled by Congress.

Nonetheless, Republicans think they've found a way out of this conundrum. Politico reports: "The likely proposal would fund nearly the entire government through September 2015, but immigration enforcement related funding would be renewed on a short-term basis, according to several high-ranking GOP lawmakers and aides who described the plan as it stands now ... The short-term portion would most likely expire sometime in the first quarter of 2015, sources said. The delay would give Republican leaders more options to counter Obama’s executive order without inducing a government shutdown."

Instead of taking the entire government hostage, the Republicans want to hold "immigration enforcement related funding" hostage. Immigration enforcement is not handled by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In other words, if Obama won't bend to Republicans demands, then funding for immigration enforcement will expire. And Republicans, who have refused to pass any immigration bill unless we "secure the border," will be responsible for ending overnight all America does on a daily basis to secure the border.

Brilliant plan, guys. Enjoy your majority while it lasts.