House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called an emergency meeting this morning for House Republicans to discuss their options in a response to the ongoing illegal-alien border surge. The House is scheduled to break next week for the month-long August recess. Reports indicate that the Leadership is leaning towards moving a bill that would provide Pres. Obama with about $1 billion in emergency funding and modify the 2008 human trafficking law that has been the blame for some of the surge.
Earlier this week, a House working group formed by Speaker Boehner revealed it's recommendations, including deployment of the National Guard, establishment of repatriation centers throughout Central America, and a surge in immigration judges among other things.
"Our Republican conference carefully and thoughtfully considered where the country is, what needs to be done, and I believe that we will act," House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (R-Texas) told The Hill. "There's no one in there that didn't recognize that we have to address this problem."
But there are some in the caucus that say a bill that includes policy changes, including one to the 2008 law, wouldn't pass the Senate or be signed by Pres. Obama.
"I think that we're still very divided," Rep. John Fleming, (R-La.) said. "I think that -- I know that -- there's a number in there that didn't speak up at all and feel as I do: that, at most, we should call the president out through a resolution that he must act, and that we can't act until he does."
The caucus also discussed a resolution that would challenge Pres. Obama's 2011 and 2012 memos that granted deferred action to illegal aliens.
"You can't trust this president," Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) said. "I mean, he could go in and do an executive order again next week."
Despite the skepticism among some Republicans, most reports of the meeting conclude that the House will pass a smaller version of the working group's recommendations.
