(Slate) Republicans had a rare, fleeting moment of consensus on immigration when the president announced last month that he would take executive action to defer deportation and give work permits to millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Republicans of all stripes—from the big-business-friendly speaker of the House to the Gadsden flag-toting Tea Party darlings in the rank-and-file—all agreed that his move was an unconstitutional overreach and an assault on our constitutional system of checks and balances. In that moment, Republicans called an intra-caucus cease-fire.
That cease-fire is toast. Ten Republicans broke ranks on Thursday to vote against or simply vote “present” on a largely symbolic bill introduced by Rep. Ted Yoho intended to block the president’s executive action on immigration. One Republican member, Arizona’s Rep. Matt Salmon, mocked the bill a few hours before the vote, telling a group of reporters that the House could save time and money by just sending the president a Hallmark card.
