U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, said he will break with what's expected to be a majority of Republicans in the House and vote against a temporary funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
Funding for the DHS is tied to amendments stripping away executive orders regarding immigration issued in November by President Obama. Those orders have been put on hold by federal courts, though the stay could be lifted at any time.
DHS funding runs out Friday and Congress is taking steps to avoid a partial shutdown of the agency even while setting aside language on immigration in the bill. The stopgap funding is for three weeks.
However, The Hill reported that GOP efforts - led by House Speaker John Boehner -- to pass the continuing resolution for DHS are splintering. The website that covers Capitol Hill also listed Brooks among the leaders of hardline conservatives fighting to stop the CR.
During an appearance Thursday night on MSNBC, an animated Brooks said he would not take the risk of funding "illegal and unconstitutional action."
"The vote (today) is a little bit like being a little bit pregnant," Brooks said in an appearance on "All In with Chris Hayes." "You either are or you are not. And if you vote for this continuing resolution and if the stay is lifted, then you will have voted to fund illegal and unconstitutional action and I'm not going to take that risk."
In an Associated Press story on Friday, Brooks said, "I am not going to vote under any circumstances to fund illegal conduct. It does not make any difference whether the funding is for three weeks, three months or a full fiscal year. If it's illegal, it's illegal."
Brooks said he was skeptical of any shutdown impact on the DHS.
"Shutting down" the agency known as DHS "is a set of words that don't really have the meaning that people attribute to it," Brooks told The AP. "There was hardly any effect whatsoever on the Department of Homeland Security from the last shutdown, and I would anticipate a similar effect this time."
On the MSNBC appearance, Brooks said the conflict could be resolved if Senate Democrats would pass the House bill funding DHS with the immigration amendments. The Senate passed the funding bill but without the amendments.
Said Brooks, "If we're going to fight (today) on protecting American jobs and putting American citizens first and foremost, struggling American families first and foremost for the seeking of those jobs and the obtaining of those higher wages instead of uplifting illegal aliens - which for some unfathomable reason the president of the United States wants to do, putting illegal aliens superior to American citizens - if that's the ground the Senate Democrats want to fight and defend on, I challenge them to do so and I welcome the 2016 election outcome."
Updated Friday, Feb. 27, 2015, at 2:28 p.m. with video of Brooks from The Hill on Wednesday.