House GOP moves ahead on suing Obama
House Republicans took the initial step Thursday to sue President Barack Obama over the administration’s decision to delay the employer mandate of the health care law. Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced that Republicans had released a draft resolution that would authorize the House to file the suit, which Obama has called a “stunt.” Republicans say the president changed the law without congressional approval. A House vote is scheduled for later this month. Some Republicans are demanding that Obama be impeached, but Boehner said he disagrees with those calls.
Associated Press
DEVELOPMENTS
— U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson will visit a temporary immigration detention center in southeastern New Mexico today and meet with officials in Texas about the ongoing humanitarian immigrant crisis.
— The U.S. Border Patrol says it will stop bringing Central American migrants to San Diego after their arrests in Texas. Spokesman Paul Carr said Thursday the agency has reduced its backlog in south Texas and is now able to process more migrants there.
Associated Press
Outlines of a possible compromise that would more quickly deport minors arriving from Central America emerged Thursday as part of President Barack Obama’s $3.7 billion emergency request to address the immigration crisis on the nation’s southern border.
Republicans demanded speedier deportations, which the White House initially had supported but left out of its proposal after complaints from immigrant advocates and some Democrats. On Thursday, the top House and Senate Democrats pointedly left the door open to them.
“It’s not a deal-breaker,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Let them have their face-saver. But let us have the resources to do what we have to do.” Her spokesman Drew Hammill later clarified that any changes “must ensure due process for these children.”
In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said: “I’m not going to block anything. Let’s see what comes to the floor.”
But opposition arose from key Democratic senators, suggesting battles ahead before any deal could be struck.
“I can assure you that I will fight tooth and nail changes in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said at a hearing on the situation, referring to the 2008 law that Republicans want to change.
Noting that the arriving migrants include young girls trying to escape sex violence and gangs, Leahy said: “I’m not sure Americans all really feel we should immediately send them back.”
Reid and Pelosi made their comments as House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., both said they didn’t want to give Obama a “blank check” to deal with the crisis of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children arriving at the Texas border. Many are fleeing gangs and drawn by rumors they would be able to stay in the U.S.
Boehner and McConnell indicated policy changes would be necessary to win their support.
“We want to make sure we actually get the right tools to help fix the problem,” McConnell said.
Proponents of speedier deportations say an effective way to stem the tide of young immigrants crossing the border would be to send them back home right away, to show their parents that the trip north was wasted.
Obama, speaking in Austin, Texas, criticized House Republicans for not taking up a comprehensive immigration bill. The Senate passed an immigration overhaul bill, with the support of 14 Republicans, in June 2013.
“They don’t have enough energy or organization or I don’t know what to just even vote no on the bill,” Obama said of House Republicans. “And then they’re mad at me for trying to do some things to make the immigration system work better.”
The political sparring came as Obama’s Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, defended the emergency spending request at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
He said that without the money, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol agencies would both run out of money in the next two months.
At issue is a law approved in 2008 to give protection to sex trafficking victims. It requires court hearings for migrant young people who arrive in this country from “non-contiguous” countries — anywhere other than Mexico or Canada.
Because of enormous backlogs in the immigration court system, the result in the current crisis is that kids streaming in from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are released to relatives or others in the U.S. with notices to appear at long-distant court hearings that many of them never will attend.
Republicans want the government to have the authority to treat Central American kids the same way as kids from Mexico, who can be removed quickly unless they convince Border Patrol that they have a fear of return that merits additional screening.
“I think clearly we would probably want the language similar to what we have with Mexico,” Boehner said.
White House officials have said they support such changes and indicated last week that they would be offering them along with the emergency spending request. But immigration advocates objected strongly, saying children would be denied legal protections.
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Asked Thursday about the issue, Johnson said he supported changing the law to treat children from Central American nations the same as those from Mexico.
“We want the flexibility in the current situation to have that discretion,” he said.
But in response to concerns voiced by Leahy and Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Johnson insisted that the kids still would be protected.
“A request for discretion, as long as I’m secretary, means a request for the ability to do the right thing,” he said.
The comment didn’t quiet Democrats’ concerns.
“You want flexibility. There’s danger in flexibility,” Harkin said. “The single most important thing is to take care of these kids.”
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