On Monday, Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar said that the “fight to stop the president’s unconstitutional executive amnesty is one worth having because we are fighting to uphold our Constitution.”
Gosar challenged House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claim that a DHS shutdown would threaten the safety of the United States; “My response: You call what we have now safety? Come visit Arizona and ask the people living along the porous southern border if they feel like they are safe. Allowing executive amnesty to move forward would severely worsen our already pathetic border security policies.”
Gosar accused the Senate Democrats of being the “only group stopping Congress from doing its job and funding DHS” by using “the filibuster to not even allow for debate of the House passed DHS funding bill.”
The Hill reports that Republican lawmakers will not give reassurances that there won’t be a shutdown later this month. “Most DHS employees are considered “essential,” meaning that workers like border patrol agents and Transportation Security Administration employees would remain on the job, albeit without pay,” according to Cristina Marcos writing for The Hill. “So in the eyes of some lawmakers, a DHS shutdown wouldn’t have as much impact as the government-wide shutdown in 2013.”
The Statesman reported that a federal court blocked the executive order just after 10:15 p.m. Monday night. Abbott filed the suit on Dec. 3 while he was still the state’s attorney general, leading what would become a 26-state coalition opposed to Obama’s order.
According to The Statesman, the ruling, made by federal judge Andrew S. Hanen of the federal district court in Brownsville, prevents all applicable agencies from implementing any expansions to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.