Bill to Defund Obama’s Immigration Action Fails in US Senate

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US Senate voted on Friday against the bill that sought to defund US President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration.

"Three fifth of the senators duly chosen and sworn having not voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to," Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who was presiding over the vote, stated.

The vote to block funding for Obama’s immigration initiative took place after the bill to fund the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through September 30 was approved in the Senate.

The previously proposed DHS funding bills had amendments to defund the executive action on immigration, which US Senate Democrats blocked from coming to a vote.

In November, Obama announced in his executive action that as many as five million undocumented immigrants, who are parents of US citizens or lawful permanent residents, will have a right to obtain temporary relief from deportation, as well as a work permit in the United States.