June 07, 2013

KPCC: House guts funding for Dreamers executive order; Senate likely to put it back

The House of Representatives has voted to cut funding to President Obama's initiative allowing undocumented immigrants or "Dreamers" to stay in the United States. 

The GOP-led House voted 224-201 in favor of an amendment to the Homeland Security appropriations bill that forbids spending on the policy that exercises "prosecutorial discretion with respect to individuals who came to this country as children." 

Riverside Democrat Mark Takano compared the amendment to California's Proposition 187  - the 1994 voter-approved measure that denied many state services to undocumented immigrants. He said Prop 187 turned many California Latinos away from the Republican Party for more than a generation.

"Republicans are setting themselves up for the same thing by doing such an inhumane thing—voting against innocent kids brought here through no fault of their own," said Takano.