The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers rooms washington, d. C. , january 16, 2015, i hereby appoint luke messer to act as speaker pro tempore on this day signed john a. Boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain. Jall mighty ever living god in the heart in all peoples. Graciously receive the prayers we pour out to you for our country, through the wisdom of our leaders and integrity of its citizens, harmony and justice may be assured and lasting prosperity come with peace. Look with favor, we pray on this house and in your mercy, we beg you to grant that its members may be your instruments for us and for the whole world, that the flourishing of peoples the establishment of peace and the freedom of religion made through your gift be made secure. Pour out upon these men and women o god, the spirit of your wisdom, so they may decide everything for the wellbeing
Consume. The chair does the gentleman claim time in opposition to the amendment . Mr. Conyers i do. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Conyers thank you very much. I am very disturbed by the nature of this it it blackburn amendment because it would prevent the use of federal funds or resources to consider adjudicate, renewal of any previously denied application for deferred action for childhood arrivals, daca. Or any subsequently similar program. This amendment is similar to the same blackburn bill that passed the house in august of 2014. This amendment clearly terminates the daca program, the dreamers, ladies and gentlemen, my colleagues. The amendment prevents new persons from applying for daca and explicitly prohibits further efforts to renew deferred action under this amendment. Hundreds of thousands of young people who came forward past background checks obtained daca and have since followed the law would be deportable at the end of their twoyear deferred action period. Th
Deferred action and in arizona versus United States, the Supreme Court relied upon the broad discretion exercised by the federal immigration officials including, quote, whether it makes sense to remove all, and strike down all of arizonas sweeping Immigration Law. Because it could result in harassment of sole aliens, thats their term for example, a veteran, a College Student or someone assisting in a criminal investigation, should not be removed, the law, quote violates of the the principle that the removal process is entrusted at the federal government. The idea that the enforcement efforts should be focused on high priority targets. And immigration context have been issued as far back as 1976 under president george w. Bush the Customs Enforcement i. C. E. Reafirmedeprrl prosecutorial discretion to use discretion in identifying responding to healthrelated cases. Indeed 15 years ago democratic and republican members of congress joined together to the then attorney general urging her to
Doma or this bill, and mr. Holder decided to stop making them. And that is what made me say hes abandoned his duty. Do you agree . I agree. I thought that the decision was wrong. I happen to agree with the president. I was a critical of doma. But i thought that the abandonment of the defense of doma was to the rule of law. I thought it violated a longstanding understanding with this body. You know, theres history here, as you know. Youre a student of the constitution. And you know that theres always been this tension between the congress and the Justice Department as to who can be in court defending things of this kind. The Justice Departments always insisted theyre the exclusive representative. Huh been attorney general you would not have stopped that. Absolutely. I would have defended that law. Even though you didnt agree with doma, the defense of marriage act. Theres no definition in the attorney generals position as to when they will abandon a federal law. I happen to agree with th
At 9 oclock today. In the first 45 minutes, your thoughts on using the hs fund to go tackle executive actions on immigration. You may agree with the efforts by the republicans or not. But you can call in on one of three lines this morning, 2027488000. Democrats, 20274888001. For republicans and for independent, 2027488002. You want to make your thoughts on one of our social Media Channels known on the republicans using the hs bill to stop immigration action. Send us email a lot journal cspan. Org. This effort with amendments voted and agreed on to yesterday scheduled for a vote was at a vote yesterday where john boehner talks about some of the reasons they are taking these actions on the chs bill and the efforts on executive action by the administration. Here is what he had to say. [video clip. ] our goal is to fund the department of Homeland Security. Our second goal is to stop the president s executive overreach. This is not the way our government was intended to work the the preside