On Wednesday, 50 sheriffs from around the country will converge on Washington, D.C. to demand that the GOP block House Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) plans to fund Obama's executive amnesty. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), "the sheriffs will speak out against the president's recent executive amnesty which grants deferred action to millions of illegal aliens."
Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson of Bristol County, Massachusetts organized the trip to the nation's capital. He will be joined by the other sheriffs at "a joint press conference with Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and David Ritter (R-LA), and other members of Congress."
The press conference is being held on December 10 because that comes less than two days "before government funding expires." To date, FAIR reports that Boehner has been hesitant to say he will not fund Obama's amnesty, choosing instead to say "there are a lot of options on the table" or "we have limited options in terms of how we can deal with this."
In reality, Boehner can see to it that Congress separates Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding "from the larger omnibus appropriation measure" and explicitly states that no funds can be used to fund Obama's amnesty. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is all but certain to oppose and attempt to block this move. Therefore, another avenue -- one of less resistance -- is to "kick the can down the road on DHS funding until early 2015 when the Republicans control both houses of Congress." This option takes Reid out of the scenario but it also means Boehner will have to be pressured all over again in January when the measure comes back up.
Option three is to pass a bill that simply defunds amnesty. This is a straightfoward approach. And although it would face "a near certain veto" it would also force Obama to come out and "hold DHS hostage to his amnesty program."
Boehner's fourth option is to simply ignore the will of midterm election voters and obey Obama's wishes. But the sheriff's are coming to D.C. to ask the GOP to stop Boehner from doing this.
