Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro is leading the opposition to House Republicans currently strategizing on how to turn back President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration.
Castro sent out a letter to fellow lawmakers, including House Speaker John Boehner, asking House Republicans not to deny funding to the Department of Homeland Security by way of additional measures that would keep needed funds from the president's immigration orders, Politico is reporting.
The current Department of Homeland Security funding bill is set to expire on Feb. 27, and the Castro is asking that Obama's executive orders not be put on the chopping block.
"Americans have been waiting on Congress for years to fix our immigration system, and we have yet to act," the letter says.
"Gaming the appropriations process and using the Homeland Security funding bill as a way to defund the president’s immigration executive order is a political shot that misses the mark and puts our nation at risk," he said.
He contends that if the House defunds the executive action, it "will only set the House up for another manufactured crisis."
The House is set to vote next week on whether or not it will defund Obama's executive actions on immigration, which are supposed to ease the rules on deporting illegal immigrants.
House Republicans already voted to defund the president's executive orders in December, but the effort got stalled in the then-Democratically controlled Senate.
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