Fund Homeland Security, Not Illegals

Fund Homeland Security, Not Illegals

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

February 26, 2015

As the clock heads toward the zero hour to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded, the Republicans in the House and Senate have yet to learn how to lead by actually leading.

Senate Republicans have an excuse as they just took over the mantle of leadership less than 60 days ago. The House GOP does not enjoy that same luxury as they have been running the show, with little exception, for the better part of two decades.

The GOP must also remember that while in the minority of the Senate, rarely, if ever, did then Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) utter the word compromise. Acting as a pugnacious bulldog missing his bone, Reid was at best contentious toward his GOP opponents, at times downright rude and uncivil.

The Republicans in the House added a rider to the DHS funding bill that would disallow federal funding of Barack Obama’s executive orders pertaining to illegal aliens. Effectively this would quash the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents which had the purpose of protecting more than four million illegals from deportation. This new program was effective as of spring this year.

Another rider has the purpose of ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals – an act providing relief for illegals brought to the United States when they were still children. In the case of both amendments, illegals would be granted permission to remain in the United States and apply for social security cards and work permits.

This is egregious on so many levels. Those persons in this country illegally have already broken the law and should have no rights to anything except a one way ticket back to their country of origin – after being photographed and finger printed – with the information stored in a data base. Should illegals return and get caught again, they should be incarcerated.

Additionally, illegals do not have the authority to work in the United States – something Obama seeks to change. Those hiring illegals should be fined the amount of a fulltime minimum wage worker’s salary times five. That should dissuade employers from hiring illegals and instead hire Americans – so many of whom are desperately seeking gainful employment.

Not only does the GOP possess a majority in both houses of Congress, they recently earned some support via the judiciary. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen ordered a temporary halt to Obama’s executive orders pertaining to illegal immigration as outlined above. Hanen issued his order on Monday, February 16 which should have given the GOP some flexibility.

House Republicans could have removed the amendments pertaining to the illegals, sent a single-issue bill to the Senate, and that body would have passed the funding bill to keep DHS funded through September. But they did not because it was the smart  move to put the Democrats on the hook for either passing the bill to continue funding DHS and kill Obama’s immigration catastrophe, or vice versa, where the Democrats could keep Obama’s pet immigration programs at the cost of a partial shutdown of DHS.

The problem, however, is that the mainstream media is typically in cahoots with the liberals and the Democrats on Capitol Hill. Before long, the GOP was made to look like the demons for not wanting to fund Homeland Security in favor of ending Obama’s amnesty for more than four million illegals in this country. And because the GOP is running scared from the front, the Senate Republicans caved by removing the language pertaining to the elimination of Obama’s amnesty.

Two bright lights burn for the Republicans. On a single issue vote, DHS will receive its funding in time to prevent a partial shutdown. Let the record show that even in the case of a partial shutdown, all essential personnel remain on the job – this includes the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, FEMA, the Secret Service, and the Transportation Security Administration.

The other bright light comes from Maine Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican, who proposed a bill to defund Obama’s executive orders pertaining to amnesty for illegals.

While Judge Hanen’s order ceasing Obama’s immigration amnesty for illegals is temporary and Obama plans to seek a stay allowing his executive orders to be implemented, it is once again up to the American people to put pressure on the elected officials to thwart all efforts granting legal status to people in this country illegally. If this fails, a move to impeach Obama for unilaterally making law when it is not his job to do so will become necessary. A judge has said Obama has gone too far. If Obama ignores one branch of the government, it is up to the other branch of the government to rein him in – legally.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.