海角大神

House Republicans聽on Wednesday聽used their power of the purse to deny funds for President Obama鈥檚 "overreach" on immigration 鈥� but it is a doomed effort, sure to face a presidential veto, if it even gets that far. And so the next step must be for Congress to challenge the president鈥檚 executive immigration action in court, according to a key lawmaker.

If the House effort 鈥渄oesn鈥檛 work out鈥� in the end, then 鈥淐ongress itself should bring its own litigation because of the separation of powers argument,鈥� said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R) of Virginia, at a Monitor breakfast聽on Wednesday. He is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which, in the last Congress, passed several immigration reform bills that were never brought to the floor for a vote.

Congressman Goodlatte was speaking before House Republicans passed a funding measure for the Department of Homeland Security聽through the fiscal year, along with several amendments that Democrats and the president consider to be 鈥減oison pills.鈥�

The amendments say funds can鈥檛 be used to implement the president鈥檚 executive action in November to defer deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants, including an amendment that聽effectively ends the deportation deferral program for certain children of undocumented workers 鈥� so-called 鈥渄reamers.鈥澛�

The package now moves to the GOP-controlled Senate, where Democrats, despite being in the minority, can still block it through filibuster, denying Republicans the 60 votes needed to send the measure to the White House.聽

Goodlatte said that immigration will be a 鈥渧ery hot topic鈥� at a joint Republican House and Senate two-day聽retreat that begins later聽on Wednesday聽in Hershey, Pa. The first priority, he said, is to stop the president鈥檚 executive overreach on immigration.

鈥淲e expect to work very collaboratively with the Senate to see what way that this new Senate can help to challenge a president who is exceeding his authority," Goodlatte said.聽

A slew of state attorneys general have joined in a lawsuit against the administration over his executive action on immigration, but Goodlatte said that the states鈥� standing and judicial theories are different from those of the House or the House and Senate together.

Still, he said that 鈥渘o decision鈥� has been made about a potential congressional legal challenge to the president鈥檚 immigration moves.

As for actual immigration reform, he said that his committee and the House Committee on Homeland Security are reviewing and revising step-by-step immigration reform bills passed by their committees during the last Congress. They will be 鈥渞eintroduced and I hope acted upon in this Congress.鈥�

The order would be first bills related to enforcement 鈥� such as dealing with the problem of overstaying visas, and then legislation to reform legal immigration, including visas for high tech workers.

The status of the 11 or so million undocumented workers already in the United States 鈥渋s worthy of addressing,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut it has to be held back because of the fact that there is not trust on the part of the American people on the enforcement of our laws.鈥�

Goodlatte made it quite clear that his No. 1 priority is to challenge the president鈥檚 executive action. His committee will continue to work on reform bills, but the lack of trust in the president to enforce the law and his November executive action have 鈥渃omplicated this considerably.鈥�