Wilson: Legislation Stops the President’s Unconstitutional Executive Order and Protects American Jobs

(Washington, DC) – Congressman Joe Wilson (SC-02) today issued the following statement after the House passed H.R. 240, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015, to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the remainder of the current fiscal year:

"President Obama's unconstitutional decision to pardon illegal aliens for breaking our laws is a deliberate overreach of presidential authority that destroys jobs for American citizens, insults the millions of immigrants following our rules and working through the system to achieve legal status, and ignores the will of the American people. We voted today to defund the President's unlawful executive order and ensure our current laws are strongly enforced.

"Today's bipartisan bill works to improve our immigration and customs enforcement, strengthen our border security, and increase transparency in DHS programs to modernize our legal immigration system and protect American jobs. It helps protect our nation against terrorism, maintain highly-equipped and well-trained personnel, and ensure our nation's readiness to respond to potential threats – all in a manner that serves the best use of taxpayer dollars, while stopping the President's actions that destroy jobs for American citizens.

"We will continue efforts to ensure the safety of our citizens, while helping more Americans get back to work. Moving forward, I hope the President will focus on implementing current law rather than circumventing Congress to promote the interests of illegal aliens over the well being of American families."

H.R. 240, which passed the House by a vote of 236–191, provides $39.7 billion in discretionary funding for DHS, an increase of $400 million compared to the fiscal year 2014 enacted level. According to the Committee, "[T]he bill prioritizes frontline security – including all operational, counterterrorism, and threat-targeting activities, and essential tactical equipment – and saves taxpayer dollars by reducing overhead costs and cutting funds for lower priority programs."

Listed below are the Amendments that passed today in conjunction with H.R. 240:

• Representative Aderholt (R-LA), Amendment #1 – amendment specifically prevents any funds from any source from being used to carry out: (1) the executive actions announced on November 20, 2014 to grant deferred action to certain unlawful aliens and for other purposes and (2) four of Morton Memos on prosecutorial discretion and immigration enforcement priorities issued in 2011 and 2012 that effectively prevent certain classes of unlawful aliens from being removed from the country. The amendment declares that no funds may be used to carry out any substantially similar policies to those defunded. The amendment declares that the policies defunded and any substantially similar policies have no statutory or constitutional basis and therefore no legal effect. Finally, the amendment provides that no funds may be used to grant any federal benefit to any alien as a result of the policies defunded.
  
• Representative Blackburn (R-TN), Amendment #2 – amendment provides that no funds may be used to consider new, renewal, or previously denied deferred action on childhood arrivals (DACA) applications.
  
• Representative DeSantis (R-FL), Amendment #3 – amendment requires that DHS treat any alien convicted of any offense involving domestic violence, sexual abuse, child molestation, or child abuse or exploitation as within the categories of aliens subject to DHS's highest civil immigration enforcement.
  
• Representative Salmon (R-AZ), Amendment #4 – amendment expresses the Sense of Congress that the Executive Branch should not pursue policies that disadvantage the hiring of U.S. citizens and those lawfully present in the United States by making it economically advantageous to hire workers who came to the country illegally.
  
• Representative Schock (R-IL), Amendment #5 – amendment expresses the Sense of Congress that the Administration should stop putting the interest of immigrants who worked within the legal framework to come to the United States behind those who came here illegally.