Editorial: House Republicans should not hold Homeland Security hostage

Congressional Republicans are taking a dangerous path by holding funding for the Department of Homeland Security hostage unless President Barack Obama's latest executive orders on immigration are repealed. Even by Washington standards for manufactured crises, this is a reckless strategy that puts cities, border states and families at risk. The House should follow the reasonable approach by the Senate and separate immigration from continued funding for the Department of Homeland Security. This is no time for playing chicken.

Senate Republicans finally accepted reality Monday after four failed attempts to take up a House measure providing $40 billion for the department and halting Obama's plan to protect some classes of illegal immigrants from being deported. That quid pro quo is going nowhere. With the department scheduled to shut down Friday unless it gets more money, it's time for Congress to end this needless distraction and allow the agency to get on with its job.

A shutdown would not halt the border patrol, airline passenger screening or similar front-line operations. But 10 percent of the agency's administrative staff would be furloughed, forcing the department to shift some of its enforcement personnel to back-office duty. The staff remaining would be doing more while not collecting a regular paycheck. And the department would halt hiring and training programs, the processing of security grants to states and local governments, and the operation of E-Verify, which helps employers ensure that job applicants are lawfully in the country.

The department's mission is challenging in the best of times. But the growing security threat from the Islamic State and its affiliates and recent reports of the targeting of American malls by Somali-based terror groups make it incomprehensible that Congress would use homeland security as a bargaining chip for partisan political games.

The immigration issue is off to the side, anyway, after a federal judge in Texas last week blocked the president's executive action to shield up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation. This matter is now in the courts. And the president acted last year only because congressional Republicans could not pass a broad immigration bill that balances border security with the humane and practical value of keeping these families and communities together.

U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, called Monday for Congress to pass a clean funding bill for homeland security, the same tack being pursued by Senate Republicans. There is no reason to put the department in turmoil when everyone knows Congress will ultimately fund it, when the threats to domestic security are rising and when Republicans lack the leverage, anyway, to curb the president's broad authority to act on immigration issues.

This week poses the first major test of whether Republicans can effectively govern with their new takeover of Congress. Republican Reps. David Jolly of Indian Shores, Gus Bilirakis of Palm Harbor, Dennis Ross of Lakeland and Richard Nugent of Spring Hill have a choice: Fund the nation's domestic security apparatus or drive another dispute with the Democratic president to the breaking point. Shutting this agency down when the courts are poised to settle the immigration issue doesn't make any sense. House Republicans should agree to the Senate approach and vote on a clean funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security this week — or be prepared to be held accountable for the consequences.