Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told
Newsmax TV's "America’s Forum" on Tuesday that President Barack Obama will veto funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unless it includes his executive amnesty.
"Here's the reality of the situation, President Obama is going to play the political game with immigration," Johnson said.
"Let's face it, if he was truly interested in solving the immigration problem as he promised as a candidate, he would've passed his version of immigration reform in the first two years when he had a filibuster-proof Senate, when he totally controlled Washington."
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"He didn't do that. He has used immigration as a political football basically holding border security hostage for his political benefit and it's a real shame.
"Bottom line, President Obama is going to feel quite confident that he can veto any kind of
funding bill for DHS, but he'll still use discretionary funds," he said.
While Republicans have "some pretty strong measures" in place to fight Obama’s
"unlawful executive actions," according to Johnson, the reality is that the Congress has "limited power of the purse."
According to Johnson, 85 percent of the Homeland Security’s budget gets spent whether it's appropriated or not "so the level of control that Congress can really impose on the president is limited."
But the Republican-controlled Congress will do everything in its power to "highlight the unconstitutionality" of President Obama's unilateral action granting executive amnesty to millions of people in the country illegally, and "to pass a strong border security immigration enforcement bill," Johnson told host J.D. Hayworth.
Unfortunately, Obama has not gotten off on the best footing with the 114th Congress, Johnson added.
"President Obama has certainly started his relationship with this new Congress picking a fight and this is in the face of people like myself being very public in our desire to work with this administration, finding the areas of agreement on regulatory reform, making a commitment to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to help him succeed in his mission in keeping this country safe," said Johnson.
"Our outreach has really been just met with threats of veto," he said. "And this president acting unilaterally and trying to pick fights with us, it's very unfortunate. It is an arrogance of power that has to be reined in."
Johnson said that as a result of the Obama administration’s continued mitigated narrative about Islamic extremism, the job of
security-minded Republicans is made more challenging.
"This administration has denied, certainly going back to January of 2014 when President Obama referred to ISIS as the JV team, it kind of shows you the attitude that President Obama would like to take, just doesn't want to really face the reality," Johnson said.
"But the bottom line is the war on terror is not over. Islamic terrorists are not on the run in terms of going into hiding, the threat is metastasized around the world and we're seeing it carried out in the streets of Western capitals: Paris, Ottawa, Sydney, Fort Hood, Texas.
"Let's face it, this is a problem that is growing and we have to face that very hard reality."
Johnson said he agrees with the sentiments expressed by Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions in a 25-page memo he circulated to his GOP colleagues this week, entitled "Immigration Handbook for the New Republican Majority."
Sessions urges Republicans to
block funding for the president’s executive immigration order which gives amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.