Alaska News

GOP targets Begich on immigration after vote on spending measure

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Begich pushed back Tuesday against Republican claims that a vote he made last week will allow President Barack Obama to make unilateral changes to national immigration policy after Election Day in November.

Ben Sparks, the campaign manager for Begich's opponent, Republican Dan Sullivan, emailed supporters the day after Thursday's vote to say that U.S. Senate Democrats, including Begich, had "blocked an amendment" to stop Obama from "singlehandedly granting amnesty to illegal immigrants."

The Senate action was on a procedural maneuver that, had it passed, would have opened up a spending and military bill to amendments -- including one from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would have limited Obama's ability to give some illegal immigrants permission to stay in the country and work. Obama has said he intends to take executive action on immigration after this fall's election.

The measure failed to pass, deadlocking with a 50-50 vote, as several red state Democrats joined Republicans in support. Begich voted against the measure, siding with the Democrats. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted with the GOP.

Begich's vote drew sharp attacks from Republicans, with an Anchorage spokesman for the Republican National Committee saying in a prepared statement that Begich was "empowering President Obama's push to grant executive amnesty."

According to the website Politico, Begich joked that he was thinking about voting with the Republicans, but decided against it after no Republican senators asked him to do so.

"Senator Begich does not support amnesty," Begich spokesman Max Croes said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

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The vote, Croes said, was a "procedural attempt to slow consideration" of the spending bill and an accompanying measure to arm Syrian rebels, and he noted that the motion "didn't contain the words 'amnesty' or 'immigration.'"

"Senator Begich believes any executive action on immigration should be subject to Congress," Croes said.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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