Senate GOP hedges on immigration vote

Senate GOP hedges on immigration vote
By Alexander Bolton - 01-15-15 13:34 PM EST

HERSHEY, Pa. — Senate Republican leaders are not committing to a vote on legislation passed by the House that would block President Obama from easing the deportations of illegal immigrants.

Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the third-ranking member of Senate Republican leadership, declined to say Thursday whether the House bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be brought to the Senate floor.

“I don’t want at this point to say what [Senate] Leader [Mitch] McConnell [R-Ky.] might ultimately decide to do. That’s a discussion we’re having as a conference.

“Obviously we want to give our members an opportunity to vote to express their opposition to the president’s action, but we also realize, at the end of the day, in the Senate, it’s going to take 60 votes,” Thune said at a joint retreat for House and Senate Republicans at the Hershey Lodge.

GOP lawmakers are discussing their next steps on the House bill, which centrists in the upper chamber have met with skepticism.

One of the most controversial elements is a provision that would halt Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program launched in 2012 that provides work permits to illegal immigrants brought to the United States as children.

Twenty-six House Republicans voted against that amendment to the bill, and it is unclear whether the proposal can win enough support in the Senate to pass.

The House legislation would also defund Obama’s executive order from November, which expanded the freeze on deportations to cover up to 5 million immigrants.

Thune stressed that Senate and House Republicans share the same goals when it comes to reversing Obama’s executive actions.

“We think that the president overstepped his authority, acted in an unlawful way,” he said, noting that the president initially claimed he did not have executive authority to stop deportations.

Thune said whatever passes the Senate needs to win over at least six Democrats to pass the 60-vote hurdle needed to stop an expected Democratic filibuster.