David Jolly defends House vote to defund Obama immigration order

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a Homeland Security funding bill that would cancel President Barack Obama’s deferred-action executive order allowing some four million undocumented immigrants to stay in the country without fear of deportation.

“Congress made a promise to the American people in December to defund the president’s executive order on amnesty. Today we delivered on that promise,” said U.S. Rep. David Jolly, who represents Pinellas County’s 13th Congressional District. “We passed a responsible measure that continues to fully fund each of our domestic security agencies while also including a provision stating that none of the funds provided to the president and his administration may be used to carry out the president’s executive order granting amnesty to over four million people who came here illegally.”

Responding to the vote in a packaged video, Jolly said he doesn’t believe the president has the constitutional authority to carry out his executive order — a claim echoed throughout the GOP.

Issued last year, the order extends the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to an extra four million undocumented immigrants. The original order allowed children brought to the United States before they were 16 to avoid deportation and obtain a two-year work permit. The updated order passes that along to parents of U.S. citizens and makes the work permit three years instead of two. It does not alter immigration status or provide a pathway to citizenship. There are currently 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

“The answer is not in providing accommodation to those who have ignored the law,” Jolly said.

Obama has said he will veto any legislation crossing his desk that cancels his immigration action. The Republican measure would fully-fund Department of Homeland Security functions like border patrol, Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration while prohibiting the president and his administration from using any of those funds for “amnesty.”

“Today’s action restores the power of Congress to create our nation’s immigration laws and plainly reminds the president that the U.S. Constitution grants Article I legislative authority to Congress, not to the president,” Jolly said, echoing claims by the GOP that Obama’s executive orders are not just an over-reach, but illegal. The White House maintains the orders are perfectly within the confines of the law and points out Obama isn’t the first president to provide deferred action.

In order to make its way to the president’s veto pen, the U.S. Senate must also pass the House measure.

“We now need all Americans who care deeply about this issue to contact their senators encouraging them to approve this same measure. This legislation is the right response to the president’s wrongful action.”

According to the Washington Times, Democrats claim Republicans are holding homeland-security money hostage while they attempt to further their own immigration agenda.