President Barack Obama is meeting with six young illegal immigrants in the White House on Wednesday in what is being considered a pushback against Republicans who are working to dismantle his executive immigration actions.
The meeting will be held with so-called "dreamers" - illegal immigrants who came to America as children and received deportation protection under a program implemented by Obama in 2012. Obama granted additional amnesties to millions of illegal immigrants in 2014.
The president hopes to use the event to demonstrate to Republican lawmakers why they should halt efforts to reverse his immigration amnesty efforts, a White House official told The Washington Times.
Dreamers from Texas, Maryland, Nevada, Connecticut, New York and Virginia will be in attendance.
"The meeting takes place as Congressional Republicans are threatening to block funding for critical national security priorities for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) because they disagree with the president's executive actions to make our immigration system smarter, fairer, and more effective," the White House official told the Times.
"Instead of working with Democrats and the president to fix our broken immigration system, Congressional Republicans' funding proposal makes things worse by undercutting our efforts to strengthen security at the border and by focusing our enforcement resources on deporting low priority individuals like the young Dreamers who are meeting with the president."
The president "will reiterate that his executive actions are lawful and that Republicans' efforts to reverse his actions will prevent millions of undocumented immigrants from undergoing background checks, make it more difficult for them to pay taxes and would also tear apart millions of immigrant families - many of whom have been living here for decades," reported The Washington Post.
Republican lawmakers claim Obama acted unconstitutionally when he unilaterally granted temporary legal status and work permits to millions of illegal immigrants, arguing only Congress has that power.
The House of Representatives recently passed a spending bill with provisions to reverse both the 2012 and 2014 amnesties, while allowing funding for the rest of the Homeland Security Department beyond when it's set to expire in February and through the fiscal year.
On Tuesday, Senate Democrats filibustered the spending bill and blocked it from coming up for debate on the floor, objecting to the measure that would defund Obama's immigration efforts.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is expected to bring the bill back for another vote containing amendments that Democrats will likely oppose, reported The New York Times. Lawmakers from both parties have acknowledged that a backup plan is needed to prevent the Homeland Security Department from running out of money.
Obama has promised to veto any bill that would negatively affect his executive immigration actions.
