Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Thursday that Senate Republicans will look to force a vote in the coming weeks on legislation that would block President Barack Obama from expanding an amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants.
"We're going to demand a vote on the House-passed bill, which bars the president from expending any money to execute another five- to six-million-person amnesty," Sessions said on Mark Levin's radio show Thursday. "That is perfectly legal and proper for Congress to do."
President Barack Obama is reportedly pushing a new amnesty plan, one that Senate Republicans are hoping to block. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
"Harry Reid will attempt to block it. We're going to force a vote, and every member of Congress should be held to account," Sessions added.
Before leaving for the August break, the House approved a bill that would spend $694 million to fund border efforts for the remainder of the year. But conservatives also demanded passage of a separate bill that guts Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and prevents the creation of a similar program for millions of illegal immigrant adults.
Republicans like Sessions say the DACA program is what caused the flood of immigrants over the southern U.S. border over the last several months, and say expanding DACA would make the problem even worse.
Even Sessions acknowledged that Democrats have the power to prevent a vote on the House-passed bill. "If Democrats stick together, it won't happen," he said.
But Sessions said voters have a chance to fight Obama's planned amnesty program in the mid-term elections this November.
"We've got to put pressure on the elected representatives, so they will need to be defeated in November if they don't stand up and do what they can do," he said. "And that's the one message that will resonate in the White House."
"The American people ultimately have an opportunity this election to insist that their representative do what they ask, not what the president asks," Sessions added.
Sessions laid the blame for the immigration mess at the feet of Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, who he accused of serving a political function, not a law-enforcement function.
"They are not supposed to be political," he said. "And this Attorney General, in my opinion, is the most political Attorney General within the history of the Republic, I am sure, certainly in my lifetime."
