Immigration Battle

President Obama allies bank on immigration backfire  By Seung Min Kim
Republicans voted to extend the Department of Homeland Security's funding through February in an attempt to try to defer the fight against Obama's executive order until their party had a majority in both houses. Obama's allies are eager for a fight because they believe it will be good politics for them and bad for the GOP. It will be bad politics for the republicans because their attempts to overturn Obama's executive order will make them seem hostile to immigrants and Latinos. Despite the bad politics, Republicans hope that the temporary shut down of DHS will cause a change to Obama's executive order. On February 27, the ending day of funding, most of the department's employees will continue to work. This is because their jobs are essential or they are not funded appropriated by Capitol Hill. During the shutdown in October 2013, DHS employees continued to work despite the shutdown because their jobs are "necessary for the preservation of the safety of human life or the protection of property” and their paychecks were withheld until after the shutdown. Therefore Republicans hopes that the lack of pay to employees could cause a change to the executive order. The wildcard in the attempt to overturn Obama's immigration plan is the lawsuit filed by 24 states. There will be a hearing on January 9th.

The Republicans attempts to overturn the executive order will only cause a lack of paychecks for DHS employees, and won't change the Obama administration's minds. Also, I agree with the article in that the strong efforts to overturn the order will only create bad politics for the Republicans. Overall I think the cut of funding after February for DHS is not a good idea because that department is an essential part of our country's functions. The Republicans should have found a better way to deal with the situation.