FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            Contact:        Brian Baluta, 202-225-6155

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Mark Amodei (NV-2) voted in favor of H.R. 240, the FY 2015 Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations bill, which included amendments to defund the President’s executive action on immigration. The legislation passed 236 to 191. The vote makes good on the House Republican strategy to use a three-month Continuing Resolution (CR) to delay a vote on the DHS appropriations bill until that time it could be passed and sent to a Republican-controlled Senate in the 114^th Congress.   

“I understand patience is in short-supply these days, but for those individuals who insisted the CRomnibus funded the President’s executive amnesty, which it did not, we have followed through and kept our word,” said Amodei.

Highlights of the bill include:

Prevents funds to be used to carry-out executive actions announced on Nov. 20, 2014 to grant deferred action to an estimated four million undocumented immigrants.

Defunds the administration’s prosecutorial discretion memos.

Declares that no funds may be used to carry-out any substantially similar policies to those defunded.

Makes clear that defunded programs have no statutory or constitutional basis and therefore no legal effect.

Defunds ability of undocumented immigrants to receive Federal benefits based on these policies.

Ensures that sex offenders and domestic violence perpetrators are priorities for removal by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Expresses sense of Congress that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) should stop putting interests of undocumented immigrants ahead of legal immigrants.

“It is worth reminding everyone, as we go forward to hopefully deal with the reform of legal immigration, that Article I, Section 8, Clause 4 of the Constitution states, ‘The Congress shall have power to… establish a uniform rule of naturalization.’ I have been a strong advocate for the reform of legal immigration. I have also said repeatedly the President’s executive actions are not the answer. The solution lies with Congress and I will continue to push for a vote. To those who think grandstanding executive orders are a substitute for leadership, instead of working with Congress to cultivate solutions, we now find ourselves in a deeper, more polarized divide,” said Amodei.  

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