The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing next week that will challenge President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
The hearing will take place on Feb. 25, two days before Congress must pass a critical Homeland Security spending bill or face a potential shutdown of the agency. Democrats are blocking the bill because it includes language that defunds two Obama administration directives providing millions of illegal immigrants with access to work permits and federal benefits.
“The President’s decision to recklessly forge ahead with a plan to change our immigration laws on his own ignores the will of the American people and flouts the Constitution,” panel Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said. “At next week’s hearing, members of the House Judiciary Committee will examine the constitutional questions surrounding President Obama’s unilateral actions and will hear from several legal scholars on this unprecedented power grab,”
The hearing was scheduled two days after a federal court in Texas issued a temporary injunction against Obama’s November immigration directive benefiting five million illegal immigrants.
Witnesses include Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt and South Texas College of Law professor Josh Blackman.
Lawmakers have yet to reach a deal to pass the homeland security funding bill.
Republicans hope to increase pressure on Democrats to let the bill proceed in the Senate, but Democrats haven’t budged.
The $40 billion measure would fund the Homeland Security department through September. Democrats say they’ll keep blocking the bill unless Republicans strip out the language blocking Obama’s immigration directives.
A temporary Homeland Security funding bill runs out on Feb. 27.
