The GOP in the House appeared to be not happy with the pressure it is receiving from President Barack Obama over immigration legislation. According to a House chairman, Obama's latest strategy to urge lawmakers to take action on immigration measures could ultimately backfire and will cause the long-awaited immigration amendments to experience delays.
The Associated Press said Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte has criticized the US president this week, who had moved to delay the results of a review of the deportations policy of the country until late summer. Officials from the White House have said that the delay was done to allow Republicans in the House to have the opportunity to act head of the Congress' August recess and midterm elections slated for November this year. Otherwise, the White Hosue said Obama is set to take his own steps to curb deportations.
During an oversight hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Goodlatte was quoed as saying, "When the president says he's going to set a time limit and then consider taking actions himself ... that makes doing immigration reform harder not easier."
Legislation on immigration is stalled in the House 11 months after the Senate had passed a bill that broadly covered border security, workplace enforcement and eventual citizenship. AP said action on the matter is beginning to look unlikely even on the narrowest of measures, such as offering citizenship to illegal immigrants to serve in the military.
On the other hand, AP said the House did acted on a single immigration-related measure this week. On Thursday, known immigration hardliner Representative Steve King of Iowa had offered an amendment to a yearly spending bill that is aimed to encourage the US Justice Department to allocate $5 million to probe on the release of convicted criminal immigrants. Immigrant advocates have complained about the House voting on immigration measures that were deemed punitive considering that the votes on overhauling the entire immigration system has yet to gone forward.
