In early July, President Obama asked Congress for a $3.7 billion emergency appropriation to deal with the tens of thousands of illegal immigrant children flooding into the United States. An estimated 57,000 Central American children have entered the country illegally over the past nine months, and many conservatives believe it was caused — at least in part — by President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA granted administrative ‘legal’ status and work authorization to many illegal immigrants, leading central Americans to flock across the border illegally in hopes of being granted amnesty through executive action.
Obama has been pressing Congress to grant him this blank check for the border. At the same time, his Administration has been advertising plans to expand their executive amnesty program to apply to another 5 plus million illegal immigrants.
Earlier this week, Republican leadership’s plan was to pass a $659 million spending bill, well short of the $3.7 billion Obama had requested, then get out of town for a five week recess. But their plan did not include a provision to block funding of any amnesty attempts by the executive branch.
Sen. Jeff Sessions promptly objected and penned a letter that was hand-delivered to all 535 members of Congress urging them to oppose the legislation unless it was updated to include such a provision.
“As you know, over the last five and a half years, the President has routinely bypassed Congress in order to suspend enforcement of our immigration laws,” Sessions wrote. “The most dramatic of these lawless directives was the President’s 2012 Deferred Action Program for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), in which the president implemented by executive fiat legislation that Congress has three times rejected.”
In a later statement, Sessions noted that the House legislation “fail(ed) to place effective restrictions on the President’s ability to grant unlawful amnesty and work permits… With great concern, we as policy makers must face the reality that the President is openly planning to use executive actions to provide amnesty and work permits to millions without any lawful authority. The Congress has a duty to resist. Legislation currently pending in both chambers… must be opposed.”
Sessions’ efforts led many of his conservative colleagues in Congress’s lower chamber to express concerns with the legislation as well. As the time to vote on the bill inched closer, GOP leaders realized they didn’t have the votes for passage and pulled the bill from the floor, a move that The Washington Post called “a sure sign of chaos.”
#BREAKING Source says Cruz influence didn't blowup border bill. It was Sen Sessions. "Sessions cost us the entire AL & MS delegations."
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 31, 2014
Sources close to the House Majority Whip’s operation say they were only a few votes short, and the votes they were missing were from The Yellowhammer State.
“(House Speaker) Boehner and (Majority Leader) McCarthy were personally lobbying members of the Alabama delegation, but they wouldn’t budge,” a source on Capitol Hill told Yellowhammer on condition of anonymity so they could speak freely. “In particular, Aderholt, Brooks, Byrne and Rogers were pushing hard for tougher language. It was actually Aderholt’s tougher enforcement language that ended up in the final bill. He basically said, ‘I’m not voting for this unless my language gets in there.’ Several of the conservative heavyweights in the House backed what he was doing, too.”
It is widely believed that the efforts of Alabama’s Republicans were indispensable to blocking the initial flawed plan. They led the fight in the House.
The House ultimately voted on two separate bills Friday night.
The first was an updated immigration enforcement bill that conservatives say was greatly strengthened by the addition of Aderholt’s language. The second blocked executive action on immigration, a bill that wouldn’t even exist had Alabama’s delegation not pushed for it.
But as Fox News congressional reporter Chad Pergram pointed out on Twitter, not all of Alabama’s Republican delegation was on board with the Sessions-led plan.
Tape: Spencer Bachus (R-AL): "I have great respect for Sen Sessions, but he doesn't tell me how to vote."
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 31, 2014
Rep Spencer Bachus (R-AL): We have 2 good bills. We're going to get the votes…I hope some of my colleagues grow up.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 31, 2014
After the bills passed Friday night, Sessions praised Alabama’s House delegation for their efforts.
“I applaud the hard work of House Republicans in putting together this package, and in particular would like to recognize the steadfast and unflinching efforts from members of our Alabama delegation. The border bill has been substantially improved, and provides a marked contrast to the Senate Democrat bill—defeated on a bipartisan basis—that would have deepened the crisis.
“Most importantly, the House has taken a firm vote today to block the President’s plan to provide unlawful executive amnesty and work permits to 5-6 million illegal immigrants,” Sessions continued. “They have again acted to protect U.S. workers. President Obama’s suspension of immigration law created this crisis and his new plan, if implemented, would escalate that crisis to an unimaginable degree.”
The action now moves to the Senate, where Republicans are facing an uphill battle in the Democratic-controlled body.
“It won’t pass the Senate,” President Obama said Friday. “And if it did, I would veto it.”
