Hershey, Pa. — A Republican congressman is criticizing his party for overreaching with its new legislation to thwart President Barack Obama’s deportation relief programs.
“I think it’s a clear overreach,” California Rep. Jeff Denham told reporters at the bicameral GOP retreat on Thursday at a resort in this Pennsylvania town. “I think not having a clear message on the issue is a drag on the party.”
Denham — a lonely pro-immigration House Republican whose Central Valley-based district includes 40 percent Hispanics — was referring to the House-passed package to overturns Obama’s immigration executive actions dating back to 2011, including his program to protect young undocumented immigrants, known as DACA.
Though he expressed doubt about the legality of Obama’s new executive actions to shield more than 4 million immigrants (mostly parents of U.S. citizens) from deportation, Denham also said his party was erring in its steps to undo it. He was one of 10 Republicans who voted against the House legislation on Wednesday.
“It not only sets us back on immigration reform, I think it sends a mixed message to the American public which we’re going to have to straighten out,” he said. “Just throwing DACA out there early without having an overall reform bill, I think, brings great concern — not only from the Senate colleagues that I’ve talked to but the folks in my district that I’ve talked to.”
Immigration anxieties are running high among the restive tea party wing of the GOP at the retreat, with the Department of Homeland Security facing a shutdown on Feb. 28 if the Republican-led Congress cannot find a path forward. There are strong divisions on the issue between the House and Senate GOP — the latter is less enthusiastic about a heated confrontation with Obama on immigration policy.
Denham suggested that some in his party didn’t know what they were voting for in an amendment that invalidated the Obama administration’s 2011 Morton Memos, which established new deportation guidelines to target the worst offenders.
“I think the Morton Memos — I don’t think there was a clear understanding of what that quick amendment that came to the floor was, or the actual repercussions it would have had,” he said. “If there was a clear understanding, you wouldn’t have passed an amendment that would’ve gotten rid of prosecutorial discretion, and then pass another amendment that puts a new bar on the top tier. So I don’t think there was a clear understanding from everybody in the conference that actually voted on that.”
A group of House and Senate Republicans will meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss the path forward on immigration and homeland security funding, Denham said, adding that it’ll be ideologically diverse as to include him and Rep. Steve King (R-IA), a prominent foe of immigration relief.
