US immigration policy •

Let funding Homeland Security funding lapse, says Boehner

In an another development in the Homeland Security funding impasse, US House Speaker John Boehner has said that he is ready to allow the lapse of the funding for the department as part of a Republican’s efforts to roll back the controversial executive actions on immigration by President Barack Obama.

When asked if he was prepared to let the funding for the department lapse, Boehner said, “Certainly. The House has acted. We’ve done our job. Senate Democrats are the ones standing in the way and jeopardizing funding.”

The Democrats in the Senate have thrice blocked consideration of the Homeland Security appropriations bill this month. The funding bill has already been passed by the House.

“The Americans didn’t give us majority to fight between House and Senate Republicans. They want things to be done. You cannot cut funding from the Department of Homeland Security. We need to sit down and work this thing out,” Arizona Senator John McCain, a known Republican voice, said at a ‘Meet the Press’ event.

McCain made the remarks while referring to Republicans who took control of both the House and Senate after winning the congressional elections in November last year.

The Senate Democrats are not opposing the funding of the department, but they have strong objections against the Republicans’ House amendments that strip funding from Democratic President’s executive orders of 2012 and 2014 that lifts a deportation threat for millions of undocumented immigrants in the country.

Last week, Boehner had expressed his serious disappointment over Senate Democrats’ actions of stalling the bill, asking them that “when they are going to get off their ass and do something other than to vote no.”

The funding for the Department of Homeland Security will expire on February 27.

USCIS may be overburdened after Obama’s immigration orders

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A Senate committee was on Wednesday informed that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will have to face tough times in the coming times while processing millions of undocumented immigrants who are expected to apply for legal protection under the recent announcements on immigration by President Barack Obama.

The US government agency could be plagued by the undue rise in workload later this year, former USCIS deputy ombudsman Luke Bellocchi said in prepared testimony, adding, the pressure on the agency is high even if it hires 1,000 extra employees as planned.

USCIS works on handling the visa applications for immigrants and petitions related to naturalization.

According to Bellocchi, USCIS is likely to receive a whopping 4.5 million additional applications in the coming months. USCIS has nearly 13,000 full-time officers as well as 5,000 contractors. Most of the immigration applications are dealt on paper, he said.

Obama’s executive actions on immigration, aiming to lift the deportation threat for millions of undocumented immigrants in the country, has brought USCIS at the center stage of a congressional battle over whether the Democratic President’s policies should be carried out amid huge opposition from Republicans.

Congressional Republicans claim that Obama has misused his executive powers after crossing the constitutional bounds.

As the legislative battle over immigration continues in Republican-controlled Congress, a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security seems to face the heat. President Obama and his party men are seeking Congress to clear the pending funding bill of Department of Homeland Security devoid of immigration restrictions, while citing the increased terrorist threats in the recent times.

The Department of Homeland Security, parent body of USCIS, will run out of funds at the end of February.

Democrats obstruct passage of Homeland Security Bill in Senate

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The Republicans were on Tuesday blocked by the rival Democrats in the Senate from taking up a bill intended to provide funding for the Department of Homeland Security and rolled back President Barack Obama’s recent executive actions on the country’s immigration policy.

The actions by Republicans put a showdown over the federal agency as well as the Obama administration’s immigration policies.

The Homeland Security Department will run out of money at the end of the month.

The Republicans in Senate have been hoping to take up the legislation passed by the House that would provide funding for the security department through the fiscal year.

However, the USD 40 billion spending bill would also repeal the legal protections for over five million undocumented immigrants, including children, in the country.

The Democrats found the Opposition’s actions unacceptable, saying the President has promised a veto in case any legislation affects his executive actions over immigration policy.

The Republicans have blamed the Democrats for misusing a procedural maneuver in order to block the bill from being tabled in the Senate floor.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Republicans find themselves engaged in scrambling to fund the homeland department prior to going out of money on February 27, while pacifying most of their conservative members who are of the opinion that the American President has violated his constitutional authority and that the bill for homeland security is their best pull to fight back.

Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, the top Democrat from Maryland and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, on Tuesday took to the Senate floor for expressing her “shock” that she was backing a procedural maneuver for preventing a spending bill from putting to a vote. She, however, asked her colleagues in the party to support a “clean” bill for funding the agency.

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