GOP Committee Revives Obama's Catch-and-Release Asylum Rules

by NEIL MUNRO
Breitbart
Jul. 26, 2018

The GOP-run House appropriations committee has voted to restore President Barack Obama’s 2014 catch-and-release rules by deliberately defunding Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ July asylum reform.

The Sessions reform ended Obama’s expanded asylum-rules which have encouraged tens of thousands of migrants from Central America to walk through the border wall by just declaring a “credible fear” of violence from spouses or criminal gangs. Recent media reports say that Sessions’ reforms are successfully sending the vast majority of migrants homewards before they can use the catch-and-release laws.

The vote “is just insane,” said Rosemary Jenks, policy director at NumbersUSA. “This needs to be taken out … this [bill] should not go to the floor with this abomination.”

The House Committee on Appropriations voted Wednesday afternoon to bar government officials from spending any time or money on Sessions’ reform. The vote was taken as legislators debate and vote on amendments to the 2019 spending bill. The bill will be reviewed next by the rules committee — which is controlled by House Speaker Paul Ryan — and then will be sent to the floor for a vote.

The pro-migration language is likely supported by a majority of the House. Nearly all Democrats and many business-first Republicans favor the large-scale migration of new workers, consumers, and possible future voters.

The critical amendment was proposed by North Carolina Democrat David Price. It was passed on a voice-vote with support from retiring committee chairman New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, and from the new chairman of the homeland defense subcommittee, Kansas Rep. Kevin Yoder.

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