New Bill Would Do More than Just Defund Obama Amnesty

Congressional action to prohibit the use of federal funds or fees to carry out President Obama’s latest executive amnesty is essential to preventing millions of illegal aliens from gaining legal presence and work authorization in the U.S. But a group of courageous House members are using this opportunity to do even more than that to restore some integrity to America’s immigration policy. They have introduced a bill that would rollback many of the policies that President Obama has implemented over the past six years gutting immigration enforcement.

The Repeal Executive Amnesty Act of 2015 was introduced on January 7 by Representatives Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), and Lamar Smith (R-Texas), along with 11 other co-sponsors. The bill would prohibit DHS or any other federal agency from using funds or fees made available to them to “implement, administer, enforce, or carry out” any amnesty policies established through executive memos. Specifically, it would cut off funding for the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) amnesty and for the broader amnesty announced last November.

For that reason alone, the bill would be laudable. But it doesn’t stop there. The Repeal Executive Amnesty Act also seeks to curb a variety of abuses of executive authority that the president has used to undermine enforcement and bypass limits on immigration.

The three primary sponsors are all senior and influential members of the House Republican majority, but Speaker John Boehner and the House leadership have demonstrated a greater willingness to complain about executive amnesties and the gutting of immigration enforcement than they have in taking concrete action.

The bill to fund DHS beyond February 27 may come to the floor of the House as early as next week and the only way to ensure that it include a meaningful response to the president’s numerous abuses is included is for the American public to make its voice heard directly, and by encouraging more House members to co-sponsor the Repeal Executive Amnesty Act.