The GOP-held House overwhelmingly passed legislation that would undo President Barack Obama’s executive action blocking the deportation of some 5 million immigrants here illegally.
The measure, an amendment to a larger bill that finances the Department of Homeland Security, also reverses Obama’s 2012 order deferring deportation of young immigrants brought to the country as children and rolls back policies geared toward reducing likelihood that immigrants without criminal records would be deported.
The vote caps a months long showdown over immigration, with financing for the crucial Department of Homeland Security at stake at the very moment that terrorist attacks in Paris last week have Americans on edge.
The House of Representatives voted to pass a $39.7 billion bill to keep the department open after money runs out Feb 28, but with language attached that would aggressively roll back several of Obama’s immigration actions.
“House Republicans came to a consensus that the president cannot be trusted to do anything except enforce the laws that he likes and refuse to enforce laws that he doesn’t and make up laws on his own,” said Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, one of the most outspoken critics of Obama’s immigration policy.