OP ED

Don't blame GOP: Dems want DHS shutdown

Paul Gosar
AZ I See It
Unless both the House and Senate pass a funding measure before the end of this week, the Department of Homeland Security will run out of a money after Friday.
  • The Department of Homeland Security could shut down if Congress fails to pass an appropriation
  • Gosar%3A Democrats are blocking a vote in Senate so they can blame the GOP
  • The president%27s immigration order was unconstitutional and must be blocked

Last week, federal Judge Andrew Hanen issued an injunction barring President Barack Obama and his administration from implementing "any and all aspects or phases of" their November 2014 amnesty order.

The president initially said he was going to comply with the federal court's ruling. But then, almost in the same breath, he declared he will ignore Hanen's orders and defiantly stated, "We are doing the preparatory work because this is a big piece of business."

The arrogance of this administration is like nothing we have seen before, blatantly disregarding federal law and our Constitution. In response, the time has come for the House to stand its ground and prevent funding for the president's illegal amnesty plan.

This week we face a so-called "shutdown" of the Department of Homeland Security. The background to this problem is relatively simple: The House voted to fully fund all DHS operations except for Obama's unconstitutional amnesty plan.

Senate Democrats continue to use procedural tricks to prevent the upper chamber from voting on, or even debating, this legislation. And in typical leftist fashion their refusal to vote on full funding is — you guessed it — the Republicans' fault. Only in D.C. does such ignorance constitute logic.

What really bothers me is when I hear House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues feigning outrage against Republicans for a crisis created by the president, while simultaneously ignoring the reality of the state of our homeland security.

As an Arizonan, I have visited our southern border on many occasions, and my response to Ms. Pelosi is: If Democrats truly care about the security of this nation then they should start supporting efforts to secure the border.

I seriously doubt Congresswoman Pelosi has visited the towns I represent in rural Arizona and talked to the people living there. If she had, she would know that the failed policies of the federal government have resulted in a porous border that has not provided real security to Americans for a long time.

The federal government's failure to address our immigration crisis has forced cities in my district, such as Yuma, to step up and prevent the massive flow of illegal aliens entering the country. In 2005, a combination of fencing, new infrastructure, no-tolerance zones and increased manpower drove down the number of apprehensions in the Yuma region by nearly 95 percent, from 119,000 in 2006 to just over 6,000 in 2013.

Despite this remarkable success, the Obama administration defied all logic and common sense by unilaterally crippling law enforcement and terminating Operation Streamline as well as other worthwhile border enforcement programs.

Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot was quite upset when he contacted me about one of these policy changes, stating such action "undermines the mission of local law enforcement agencies throughout Yuma County."

The Democrats' dirty little secret is they want a DHS shutdown they can blame on Republicans so President Obama can more easily ram through his unconstitutional executive amnesty plan.

Paul Gosar

The fight to stop the president's unilateral amnesty order is one worth having, because, at its core, we are fighting to uphold our Constitution and enforce the rule of law. While last week's court decision was a win for our system of checks and balances, we have a long way to go and must not relent in our pursuit of providing real security for the people of this nation.

The failed security policies and lawlessness of this president and his administration have manufactured this crisis, and if a DHS shutdown occurs, they have no one to blame but themselves.

Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar serves Congressional District 4, which includes Prescott and Lake Havasu City.