Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson pressed Congress to drop a directive to stop President Obama’s executive order on immigration attached to a funding bill for his department, a move that has endangered support from Democrats.
Johnson said that the rider threatened his department’s operations. DHS funding is slated to run out Feb. 27 if Congress can’t pass a new spending bill.
“I am on Capitol Hill now virtually every working day” to get a bill passed, Johnson said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Senate Democrats have blocked the $40 billion bill over the immigration order included in the bill, which has already passed the House.
Republicans are angry over the Obama executive order, which they have called a breach of constitutional authority. The order will protect up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from being deported.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the move by Democrats “irresponsible,” but he said the DHS funding bill probably wasn’t the best avenue for addressing the president’s immigration order.
“This is a strategy that came from Republican leadership,” Cruz said on “State of the Union,” adding, “I told them this was not a winning strategy.”
