Tomorrow, I will get back to posting about gun violence, but I need to address another important thing that happened this week.
Some of you may have read that I put forth that Congress should pass one of the bipartisan immigration bills in the works that would grant legal status to DACA recipients, forcing the President to veto or sign it in a blog post last week.
Well, they didn’t.
On Thursday, the Senate rejected multiple bills that would have protected the DACA recipients. The one that got the most votes, a bipartisan bill that would have provided legal status and a path to citizenship for DACA recipients, got 54 votes in favor, but it needed 60 in order to pass. The White House actively campaigned against this bill, saying that it didn’t do enough to bolster border security or limit legal immigration. This is despite the fact that it committed $25 billion to strengthen border security over the next ten years and would have put restrictions on family reunification immigration, preventing DACA recipients from sponsoring their parents for citizenship.
The bipartisan bill I mentioned in my previous post, the one put forward by Senators McCain and Coons, only obtained 52 votes. It was a slimmer bill, focusing solely on border security and legalization for DACA recipients, without touching on broader immigration policy. The White House also campaigned against this bill.
Another bill, one backed by the White House, also would have provided legalization and a path to citizenship for DACA recipients. but it would have allocated $25 billion to border security immediately in order to fund the border wall, restricted family reunification immigration, reduced total legal immigration, and eliminated the diversity visa lottery program, as well. That bill only got 39 votes in favor, with 14 Republican Senators voting against it, despite the White House’s endorsement.
Now, some Senators are looking to possibly pass a temporary extension to DACA to give Congress time to find a bill they can pass.
President Trump is blaming Democrats for the failure. He says that, if they were serious about helping DACA recipients, they would let him have his funding for his wall and all of the legal immigration restrictions he wants. He says this despite the fact that his administration went to bat against two different bipartisan bills that helped DACA recipients.
It is President Trump who is holding the lives of these people hostage in order to get everything he wants, despite opposition by members of his own party and the majority of the American people.
I’ll say it again: Congress should have passed one of the bipartisan immigration bills and forced the President to either make good on his threat to veto it, or bow to the will of the people and sign it.
But they didn’t. Not that I’m surprised. But time is running out. Something needs to be done. And it is up to us.
Contact your Senators and Representatives. Make sure they pass a temporary extension for DACA so that innocent people don’t get their lives torn apart while a more permanent solution is found. Reach out to your church and talk about the possibility of it providing sanctuary to those who might be deported, like the church in Arizona did. If you know any DACA recipients, show your support encouragement for them. Let them know that you stand with them.
We didn’t take away the President’s cover. So now, let’s provide some for DACA recipients.
disenfranchisedmoderate 