WASHINGTON — A federal judge’s ruling halting the president’s executive actions on immigration did little to persuade either party in Congress to publicly back down from a budget standoff.
Republicans professed they remained resolved not to fund the Department of Homeland Security without provisions reversing President Barack Obama’s expansion of deferred action immigration programs that would allow up to 4.7 million potential recipients to stay and receive work authorization. Democrats, meanwhile, showed no willingness to soften their insistence on “clean” DHS funding, arguing that Republicans could now pursue their case against Obama in court instead of in Congress.
With just 10 days before DHS funding runs out, the likelihood of a mini-shutdown seemed high on Tuesday. The congressional recalcitrance wasn’t abating, and most lawmakers were home in their districts. Monday night’s decision by a U.S. district judge in Texas appeared not to have altered the odds. Behind the public pronouncements, however, talk was turning to another way.
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The third actor in this saga, the White House, has so far stayed away from the congressional wrangling over DHS funding, except to offer support for Democratic demands for a clean bill. Asked about a stopgap option, a senior administration official told The Huffington Post that the Hill should pass a bill without riders that funds DHS for the full year.
Anything less would go against the public warnings of DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, who has been emphatic that short-term funding prevents the department from carrying out border security plans, hiring more Secret Service agents and funding new grants for state and local law enforcement.
