WASHINGTON (AP) " The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives may vote this week to undo President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, its leader told lawmakers Tuesday as he sought to give outraged conservatives an outlet to vent over Obama's move without shutting down the government.
The move would be mostly symbolic, since Obama would certainly veto such legislation and the Democratic-led Senate likely wouldn't go along with it. But Republican leaders hope it will assuage party members furious about Obama's two-week-old actions to shield some 4 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally from deportation, and grant them work permits.
"We're looking at a number of options in terms of how to address this. This is a serious breach of our Constitution," House Speaker John Boehner told reporters. "It's a serious threat to our system of government, and frankly we have limited options and limited ability to deal with it directly."
Obama's plan came on the heels of the November elections in which Republicans retook control of the Senate and increased their majority in the House.
Conservatives have been agitating to use any government funding bill to block Obama's moves, but Republican Party leaders fear that could result in a veto by Obama and a subsequent government shutdown, a scenario they are determined to avoid.
Instead some lawmakers are pushing a different approach: a full-year spending bill for most government agencies, combined with a shorter-term measure for departments that deal with immigration. Republicans are eager to show they can govern responsible without risking government shutdowns
Publicly Boehner told reporters Republicans were considering several options and no decision had been made, but aides and lawmakers said that he indicated during a closed-door meeting with the rank and file earlier that the vote on legislation to block Obama was the leading option. It would be on a bill by Rep. Ted Yoho, a Republican, aimed at blocking Obama from unilaterally allowing categories of unlawful immigrants to live and work here.
Boehner announced the strategy as Congress reconvened after a week-long holiday recess. It remained uncertain whether immigration hard-liners who have scuttled past efforts by Boehner to address this issue would be satisfied with the approach.
Some outside conservatives were quick to register opposition, arguing that the approach would do nothing to stop Obama's plans stripping away the money to carry out the policy.
"If conservative members agree to this plan, they are just as complicit in Obama's amnesty as everyone else. Don't be fooled, once this budget bill passes the amnesty will be irrevocable," wrote Daniel Horowitz, a columnist for the Conservative Review.
Meanwhile Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson defended Obama's new immigration plans before a House committee where Republicans took turns denouncing them as an unconstitutional power grab that would incite a new rush of illegal immigration at the border.
"The president's unilateral actions to bypass Congress undermine the Constitution and threaten our democracy," said Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican and the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "We will see a wave of illegal immigration because of the president's actions."
Johnson disputed that point and others, arguing the president acted within his executive authority to temporarily defer deportations for certain immigrants who are not priorities for removal anyway. The actions apply mostly to people who've been in the country five years or more and have children who are citizens or green card holders.
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Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.