USA | Republicans struggle for way out as Homeland shutdown looms

President Barack Obama gestures as he finishes speaking to members of the National Governors Association

Divided Republicans are searching for a way out of an impasse over immigration that is threatening to shut down the Homeland Security Department within days.
With the agency’s budget set to expire Friday at midnight without action by Congress, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Monday he would separate language overturning President Barack Obama’s contested immigration measures from the department’s funding bill.
The move seemed aimed at pressuring Senate Democrats who have opposed the legislation because the immigration language is included. It also would allow Republicans who oppose Obama’s executive actions on deferring deportation for millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to register their opposition with a stand-alone vote. But Senate Democrats were quick to point out it left unanswered the question of how to fund the Homeland Security Department.
“This proposal doesn’t bring us any closer to actually funding DHS,” said Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer. “It’s a disgrace that ISIS and al-Shabab are fully funded, but thanks to Republican game-playing, the Department of Homeland Security might not be.”
ISIS in one acronym for the Islamic State militant group that has taken over much of Iraq and Syria. Over the weekend, a video purported to be released by Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked rebel group al-Shabab urged Muslims to attack shopping malls in the U.S. and other Western countries
In the wake of a federal court’s ruling last week saying Obama overstepped his authority, and putting his immigration actions on hold, a growing number of Senate Republicans argued for letting the immigration fight play out in court, and passing a “clean” bill to fund Homeland Security, free of the language on immigration. The Obama administration on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Texas to put his immigration ruling on hold and filed a notice of appeal of his ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
“Leave it to the courts. I think we have an excellent case before the Supreme Court,” Sen. John McCain said Monday night.
House conservatives, by contrast, said the court developments only strengthened their resolve to use the Homeland Security budget to fight Obama on immigration. They remained adamantly opposed to a funding bill that doesn’t include language blocking Obama on immigration, and also said they would not support a short-term extension of current funding levels.
Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney said that now that Republicans have full control of Congress, they have the responsibility to stand firm against Obama.
It was unclear whether McConnell would succeed in breaking the unity of Senate Democrats, who held together for a fourth time Monday night to block debate on the House bill that funds the Homeland Security Department through the Sept. 30 budget year, while also overturning Obama’s moves granting work permits to millions in the U.S. illegally. Three previous attempts earlier in the month to advance the House bill had yielded similar results.
McConnell’s move came after Obama warned the nation’s governors that states would feel the economic pain of a Homeland Security shutdown, with tens of thousands of workers in line to be furloughed if the agency shuts down at midnight Friday, and many more forced to work without pay. Erica Werner, Washington , AP