Executive Action on Immigration. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) introduced a new version of the Homeland Security appropriations bill (H.R. 240), in the form of a substitute amendment, that would eliminate the bill’s provisions prohibiting the use of funds for carrying out President Obama’s unconstitutional executive actions on illegal immigration. The provisions targeted for elimination would defund the Obama administration’s executive actions announced on November 20, 2014 to grant deferred action for an estimated four million illegal immigrants in the United States.
The Senate adopted Cochran’s substitute amendment on February 27, 2015 by a vote of 66 to 33 (Roll Call 61). We have assigned pluses to the nays because the president is not a “king” or “dictator” who may make his own law. Under the U.S. Constitution, “all legislative powers herein granted” are delegated to Congress, and it is the responsibility of the president to faithfully execute the law.
