June 06, 2013 11:36 AM UTC

BREAKING - Gardner and Coffman vote to defund DACA

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• by: ElliotFladen

(PCG Note: Hey, Coffman, enjoy the commercials on Spanish-language TV stations explaining how you voted for this…)

POLS UPDATE #2: The Denver Post's Allison Sherry:

The vote, which all the other Colorado House Republicans supported as well, is interesting because Coffman has tried in recent months to rebrand himself as more sympathetic to his Latino constituents…

Coffman recently said he supported parts of the Senate immigration bill and told people in a town hall he favored legal status for illegal immigrants.

Coffman’s office didn’t have an immediate comment on the vote.

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POLS UPDATE: The Colorado Independent's John Tomasic reports:

Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman joined other Republican members of the House in voting to lift the executive order issued by President Obama last year that suspended deportation of undocumented immigrant youth and offered them the opportunity to apply for work permits.

The amendment was attached to a Homeland Security appropriations bill by Iowa Rep. Steve King, a leading hardline opponent to any immigration reform that doesn’t prioritize border security.

The vote comes as debate on Capitol Hill heats up around an immigration-reform proposal written by a bipartisan group of senators that many Republican strategists, reeling from electoral drubbing in 2012, had hoped would win at least enough support on the right to soften the party’s image as unsympathetic to the concerns of ethnic minority and immigrant communities…

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Rep. Steve King (R, Iowa)'s amendment to an appropriations bill passed narrowly. According to America's Voice Online:

The amendment to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations bill would restrict DHS from using any discretion in immigration enforcement, which would have the effect of undoing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and placing all DREAMers (even those who have received DACA approval) at risk of deportation.

Colorado Representatives Gardner and Coffman voted for it in its passage.