Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) says Republicans are stuck in a box of their leaders’ own making in the effort to defund President Obama’s unilateral immigration actions and he says Obama’s ongoing aggression on amnesty coupled with a weak GOP response are putting the United States in a very dangerous position.
In December, Republican leaders decided to delay any legislative fight over amnesty until they controlled both chambers of Congress in January. At that time, lawmakers approved most government funding through September but extended Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations only through this month.
In January, the House approved a bill to fund DHS through September while stripping out funds for the implementation of Obama’s unilateral action to grant legal status to some five million people in the country illegally but who have children with legal status. Despite a GOP majority in the Senate, Republicans have been unable to recruit any Democrats to their side on this issue. Without 60 votes, the measure will die and DHS funding would be in limbo.
With activists, media and lawmakers clamoring for a new strategy, Gohmert says Republicans are keeping their powder dry at the moment.
“If we are already talking about Plan B before we give up on Plan A then we’re never going to have any chance on Plan A. If you understand and appreciate the position, it’s tough to talk about a Plan B if you’re still actually honestly pushing Plan A,” he said.
In the meantime, Gohmert says Obama is already taking steps to expand what the congressman calls “unconstitutional amnesty” into a problem involving exponentially more illegal immigrants.
“Obama is now talking about allowing all those people to whom he’s given unconstitutional amnesty the ability to bring in extended family members. They’ll call it immediate family but the five million could turn into twenty million or twenty-five million once you start bringing in all the other family members. This is part of his fundamentally transforming America,” said Gohmert.
Gohmert was staunchly opposed to the December strategy on immigration, known around Washington as a “cromnibus”. Now he says that flawed approach is haunting the GOP.
“We’re in a box because our leadership decided to fund everything the president cared about and only leave Homeland Security unfunded and expected to use that as leverage,” said Gohmert, who believes the only leverage was achieved by the White House as Republicans were left with no good options.
“You’re giving up all the leverage. You’re giving up everything that the president wants and then you’re going to leave us in the position of negotiating by saying, ‘Now, if you don’t stop this unconstitutional, unilateral, amnesty that you are doing illegally, then we’re not going to fund the border patrol. We’re not going to fund people to keep us safe,'” said Gohmert.
For Gohmert, the “cromnibus” strategy in December did not reflect the fierce condemnation of Obama’s actions just a couple of weeks earlier.
“All the right things were said after the November election gave us the majority in the Senate and more seats in the House. We were going to fight, the expression was ‘tooth and nail’. Haven’t seen any teeth or nails coming out on this particular issue,” he said.
The congressman also noted the frustration conservatives had with leadership last summer. In the wake of the surge of illegal border crossings, including many by children, the House leadership tried to pass a border bill before summer recess. Gohmert says Republicans balked at the bill because House Speaker John Boehner would not say who authored it and members knew it did not originate from the House Judiciary Committee as it should.
After the Boehner bill was pulled, Gohmert joined House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia) and several other members to craft a stronger bill that passed the House but never received consideration in the Democratically-controlled Senate.
Are Republican leaders committed to stopping amnesty but guilty of employing a lousy strategy or are they not all that distressed by the president’s actions? Gohmert says the jury is still out.
“There’s plenty of reasons to be concerned about the dedication of our leadership, but if Americans keep making their voice heard, then people will listen and that includes Democrats. They will listen when their constituents respond,” said Gohmert, who says the coalition exists to stop Obama in his tracks.
“There are enough union members and Democrats in the country who are feeling the pinch of the illegality of this president’s amnesty that are going to push their Democratic senators and members of Congress to stand more firmly with them,” he said.
Obama’s efforts to add family members to his orders from November is not the only controversy involving Obama and immigration this week. The Center for Immigration Studies released a report a few days ago suggesting 5.5 million people were granted work permits by the administration from 2009-2014 in addition to the 3.5 million approved by Congress, which is supposed to have jurisdiction over the permits.
Gohmert says Obama’s actions are pushing the U.S. to a very dangerous place.
“There’s word that that five may have actually been seven (million). We’re trying to get to the bottom of that. It is outrageous and it is part and parcel of the lawlessness that we’ve been dealing with in this administration. Unfortunately, when you have 50 percent of the American people are saying, ‘Hey, we’re OK with not having checks and balances in our government.’ It’s the way you lose a country,” he warned.
The congressman says America is treading down a path that has brought disaster to those who have traveled it before.
“I believe there’s enough people in the House and Senate that don’t want to lose this country. We don’t want to lose this little experiment, as (Benjamin) Franklin said a republic if we can keep it. If we allow the president to continue this kind of lawlessness, there will not be a republic. We will be morphing more over into more of a totalitarian, dictatorial type country,” said Gohmert.
Ultimately, Gohmert believes any meaningful effort to stop Obama will have to be waged over government funding.
“Then we can start cutting off the things that the president cares about in must-pass legislation that he’s got to sign. There are bills that he cares very deeply about and you can put him on the horns of a dilemma,” said Gohmert, who says there is one thing Republicans need if that’s going to happen.
“We’ve just got to have our leadership feel strongly enough about this that they will use the leverage that we have, instead of giving it away time after time,” said Gohmert.
