
© Reuters / Kevork Djansezian
In a move that could have ramifications for domestic anti-terrorism efforts, US House Speaker John Boehner said he would let funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapse on Feb. 27 in order to reverse Obama's immigration reform actions.
House Republicans have passed a Homeland Security appropriations bill, but it is contingent upon defunding Obama's 2012 and
2014 executive orders that negated the threat of deportation for an estimated five million undocumented immigrants seeking refuge in the United States.
In the Senate, Democrats have blocked the House funding bill three times, calling for "clean" DHS-funding legislation that would maintain Obama's immigration orders. Obama, meanwhile, has threatened to veto the House measure.
"Senate Democrats are the ones standing in the way," Speaker Boehner told Fox News on Sunday. "They're the ones jeopardizing funding."
Would he let the department's funding expire? "Certainly," Boehner answered. "The House has acted. We've done our job."
.@SpeakerBoehner on #DHS Funding: 'It's Up to Senate Democrats to Get Their Act Together' http://t.co/TlVWJU37WC pic.twitter.com/qSwsxsU7xe
— FoxNewsInsider (@FoxNewsInsider) February 15, 2015
In the Senate, however, Republicans do not seem as headstrong about playing with DHS funding to defeat the immigration orders.
"The American people did not give us majority to have a fight between House and Senate Republicans," Arizona Sen. John McCain said on NBC's
'Meet the Press,' in reference to last November's midterm election. "They want things done. You cannot cut funding from the Department of Homeland Security. We need to sit down and work this thing out."
Comment: This is the direct result of NATO interference in Libya. Instead of peace and democracy, they have chaos.