WASHINGTON — For weeks, conservatives have been pushing their Republican colleagues to use any means necessary to leverage Department of Homeland Security funding to kill President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
They’ve called for the Senate to change its rules to pass a bill that Democrats oppose, and have said lawmakers should be willing to allow a DHS shutdown to make Obama change his policies. They railed against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for making a deal with Democrats on Wednesday to fund DHS without measures stopping Obama’s immigration policies.
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Cruz this week told Newsmax that Republicans “need to honor the commitments we made to stop the president’s illegal and unconstitutional amnesty.” He said in December, during a previous funding battle, that Republicans should “fund the operation of the federal government, but … not allocate taxpayer dollars for lawless and illegal amnesty.”
The fact that he isn’t mounting a filibuster — at least not for now — on DHS funding doesn’t mean he’s given up on fighting the executive actions. Cruz also has pushed Republicans to oppose Obama’s immigration policies by blocking the nomination of Loretta Lynch for attorney general.
