Democrats block effort to derail immigration order

Erin Kelly | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats blocked passage Tuesday of a Homeland Security spending bill that would have derailed President Obama's order to protect about 4 million undocumented immigrants from deportation.

Senators voted 51-48 on a procedural motion to bring the bill to the Senate floor, falling short of the 60 votes needed. Republican Dean Heller of Nevada joined with unanimous Democrats and independents to block the bill.

Unless a compromise on a new bill can be reached by the end of the month, funding for the Department of Homeland Security will expire and the agency will face a partial shutdown.

It's not clear what Republican leaders in the House and Senate will do now.

One option being discussed is to pass another short-term funding extension to prevent the looming DHS shutdown and postpone the showdown over immigration policy.

House Republican leaders are moving toward taking other action that might placate immigration hard-liners in the GOP caucus while allowing the House to pass a DHS funding bill without any immigration amendments attached.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told Republicans last week that he was taking the first steps toward suing the president to challenge the constitutionality of his immigration actions.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, has introduced a border security bill that requires federal officials to gain "operational control" of the border. Meanwhile, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is working on immigration enforcement bills, including one to require employers to use the E-Verify electronic verification system to ensure their employees are eligible to work legally in the U.S.

"In the coming weeks, this committee will hold hearings and address legislation that deals with the problem of the administration's failure to enforce our immigration laws," Goodlatte said at a committee hearing Tuesday. "We will not only provide the administration with the tools it needs; we will also act to ensure that the president cannot unilaterally shut down immigration enforcement in this country."

Tuesday's Senate battle over the $40 billion funding bill focused on House-passed amendments that would cut off funding for Obama's latest immigration order and end his 2012 program that provided protection from deportation and work permits for undocumented immigrants brought to the USA as children.

Republicans say Obama overstepped his authority in November when he announced he would effectively give temporary legal status to some undocumented parents of U.S. citizens. The action would allow them to get work permits and someday receive Social Security and Medicare benefits if they work long enough and pay into the Social Security system.

The president expanded his 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The program has helped about 600,000 young immigrants — who call themselves "DREAMers" — by allowing them to stay in the country for at least two years and obtain work permits.

"At its core, this debate is about whether Democrats think presidents of either party should have the power to simply do what they want," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday as he urged senators to pass the bill. "And while this is about more than just President Obama, it's also true that President Obama has repeatedly reached beyond his authority."

Obama said he has the legal authority to take executive action. He said he did so only after the House failed to take up a major immigration bill last year. The Senate passed a bipartisan overhaul of the immigration system in the last Congress.

Democratic senators said Republicans are willing to risk the nation's security to satisfy their right wing.

"While ISIS is declaring they're determined to 'reach America,' Republicans are playing politics with our national security," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Tuesday that the department cannot do its job if a funding bill is not approved by Congress. The department is currently operating under a temporary resolution passed by Congress late last year that funds DHS at 2014 levels through the end of this month.

Johnson said the agency, as long as it is operating under the temporary budget, cannot give federal grants to states, local governments and tribes to buy new communications equipment for police, improve campus security at colleges and universities, upgrade oxygen masks for firefighters or pay for police dogs to help detect explosives.

"The Department of Homeland Security contains numerous agencies that every single day are keeping the American people safe," Obama said Tuesday.

"They're our front lines at our borders, at our airports, along our coasts. And they need certainty in order to do their jobs."