Ted Cruz tells Congress: Defund Obama’s ‘illegal amnesty’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Wednesday urged members of Congress to take bold actions to stop President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration actions.

Cruz urged them to pass a short-term spending bill that would defund Obama’s executive actions on immigration, which seek to strengthen border security as well as provide deportation reprieve to millions of undocumented immigrants. He also urged the Senate to halt confirmations for non-national security positions until the president “stops this illegal amnesty.”

“Both Houses should use the power of the purse, which the Framers understood to be the most potent tool Congress has to rein in an out-of-control Executive,” the potential presidential contender said in a statement.

SEE ALSO: Goodlatte says Obama ‘clearly exceeded his constitutional authority’

But Cruz’s plan to defund Obama’s immigration plan is unlikely to work. That’s because the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency in charge of implementing Obama’s executive actions, is funded entirely by fees and not by the federal government.

“This agency is entirely self-funded through the fees it collects on various immigration applications,” the House Appropriations Committee said in a statement last month. “Congress does not appropriate funds for any of its operations, including the issuance of immigration status or work permits, with the exception of the ‘E-Verify’ program. Therefore, the appropriations process cannot be used to ‘defund’ the agency.”

Still, Cruz is pushing his plan forward. He joined immigration hardliners Reps. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) and Steve King (R-Iow) during a news conference on Wednesday to urge Republicans to not provide funding for Obama’s “illegal executive action on amnesty.”

Cruz is also among a number of conservatives who are not on board with House Speaker John Boehner’s plan aimed at avoiding another government shutdown, like the one Cruz and other Republicans are blamed for orchestrating last year.

Boehner’s plan includes passing a spending bill to fund most of the government through September but fund the Department of Homeland Security only through March. It also includes taking a symbolic vote in the House on a bill to show disapproval of Obama’s immigration executive actions—a bill the Senate will not take up.

SEE ALSO: Boehner proposes a plan to avoid a government shutdown

Boehner told reporters on Tuesday that House Republicans haven’t made a final decision on steps they want to take to challenge Obama on his executive actions. Some Republicans have said they’re committed to fighting Obama but want to wait to push the fight until next year, when the GOP has control of both the House and Senate.

But Cruz doesn’t want to wait until then.

He urged Republicans in Congress on Wednesday to “use every tool at our disposal—our constitutional checks and balances—to stop President Obama’s amnesty.” He also said he wants to provide Senate Democrats “an opportunity” to show voters where they stand on Obama’s executive actions, noting that nearly a dozen of Senate Democrats have publicly expressed concerns.

“Support for the President’s lawlessness decreases by the day, and House Republicans should provide Senate Democrats the opportunity to show voters whether or not they have heard the message the voters sent in the 2014 elections,” Cruz stated.

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