Republicans looking for ways to stop Obama on immigration

The talk of the town in Washington is that Republicans are looking for ways to prevent President Barack Obama from moving forward with executive action on immigration.

One option they’re looking at is taking the must-pass spending bill and attaching an amendment to it that would block any funding for agencies in charge of implementing Obama’s executive orders on immigration. Democrats would likely oppose the amendment, setting up a government shutdown.

SEE ALSO: Obama is ‘nearing a final decision’ on executive action

Members of Congress have until Dec. 11 to pass a spending bill to prevent a government shutdown like the one that occurred last year over funding of the Affordable Care Act.

Some Republicans agree that shutting down the government in an attempt to stop Obama from taking executive action on immigration is not a good option. But according to Rep. John Thune of South Dakota, there are some Republicans who are discussing the possibility of a government shutdown.

“It doesn’t solve the problem,” Thune said on “Fox News Sunday” about shutting down the government. “But look, we’re having those discussions.”

Speaking on the Senate floor on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Republican leaders want to work together to keep the government funded. But he said there are some Republicans who are “saying some scary things” about shutting down the government.

“Sadly, though, we’ve seen this before — the government has been shut down,” Reid said, according to The Hill. “How is it possible that there is even talk of this happening again?”

Despite opposition from Republicans and the threat of a government shutdown, Obama said he intends to move forward with his plan to act on his own on immigration. When asked on Sunday about the odds that the United States would see itself in another a government shutdown scenario, the president said:

“I take Mitch McConnell at his word when he says that the government is not going to shut down. There is no reason for it to shut down. We traveled down that path before. It was bad for the country. It was bad for every elected official in Washington.”

Obama also insisted that he gave Republicans enough time to come up with an immigration reform bill, but they failed to produce anything. However, he said GOP leaders in Congress still have a chance to produce an immigration bill that would supersede any executive action he takes.

SEE ALSO: Obama on immigration: ‘What I’m not going to do is just wait’

Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, echoed Obama’s message on Monday an interview with MSNBC’s Jose Diaz-Balart. She said now that Republicans have control of both the Senate and the House, they have the ability to pass a legislation they believe will be the best solution to fix the nation’s broken immigration system.

“If they don’t like what the president does, they have full latitude and authority to put a legislative solution forward,” Murguia said, referring to Republicans. “And frankly, we hope there will be a legislative outcome. We know that it is the only real permanent solution to our broken immigration system. But in the meantime, while there is this vacuum, we understand how important it is for the president to act.”