It doesn’t look like Congress is going to act on Obama’s unconstitutional Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) any time soon. Listless Congressional Democrats, pressured by their base and DACA advocates, are reportedly mulling over attaching it to a budget bill in the hopes that they can pull enough GOP support to squeeze it through.
The idea is that such a move will force the hand of Republicans who want to avoid a government shutdown over DACA. The CBO released a report last Friday that estimated DACA passage would cost American taxpayers $25.9 billion over the next decade.
The Houston Chronicle reports:
Democrats in Congress are growing increasingly pessimistic that an agreement to protect young immigrants from deportation can be reached this year.While U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, says it would take a miracle to get a deal done before lawmakers leave for the holidays later this week, immigration advocates are holding out hope that an agreement can be reached in the Senate by tying the fix to the must-pass budget bill, which could force action in the House.. . . . Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the immigrant rights organization FIEL Houston, said that he has seen congressional support dwindling as the year winds down – even from Democrats and progressives.. . . . “We’re trying to put as much leverage on Republicans as we can, but they are saying early next year. I was hoping we could do it by the end of the year and maybe a miracle will happen, but I don’t see it right now,” said Cuellar, a moderate in his party. “I hate to put it so cold, but do you shut down the government for 800,000 people at the expense of 320 million Americans? That’s really what you’re looking at.”
Advocates for illegal aliens are once again rebranding their cause. They’ve worked hard to change the language used to describe illegal aliens from “illegal alien.”
They have chosen a number of less-precise and more misleading terms like “undocumented alien” and “undocumented immigrant,” to “immigrant,” and now, apparently, to “American.”
The Houston Chronicle continues:
The nearly 800,000 so-called “Dreamers” in jeopardy since the Trump administration canceled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program have pressed for resolution before the end of the year. President Donald Trump gave Congress until early March to write legislation restoring protections, a date GOP leaders in Congress see as affording sufficient time for a solution.”You have an unfolding crisis in which young American kids are losing jobs and being exposed to deportation, and Republican leadership is saying we can kick the can down the road,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, an immigrant advocacy group.
The term “American” is being disconnected from immigration and citizenship status. If you can wake up one morning and decide you’re a different gender or race, I guess you can wake up and declare yourself an American citizen as well.
Congressional Republicans, however, do not appear to be swayed by the Democrats’ implicit, if unenthusiastic, threat of a government shutdown.
To force the issue, DACA advocates are pressuring their Democratic allies to tie amnesty provisions to a must-pass spending bill due later this week.But Republicans have dug in their heels, presenting a unified front against the idea of inserting DACA amnesty into a budget deal. House Speaker Paul Ryan managed to secure 221 Republican votes earlier this month for a continuing resolution without DACA provisions, passing the measure with 14 Democratic votes.Now, as lawmakers attempt to hammer out another spending deal, Republicans again appear to have the votes to pass a bill without having to address the DACA issue. As the Friday deadline approaches, some Democrats concede that using the threat of a government shutdown to get a DACA amnesty is unlikely to sway Republicans.
Despite the improbability of DACA’s passage, seven jailed Dreamers are participating in a hunger strike in an effort to push Congress to act on DACA. They are also reportedly refusing to leave jail until DACA is passed into law.
A group of Dreamers — including a former Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign staffer, Erika Andiola — have been on a hunger strike since they were arrested Friday after a sit-in at the Capitol, at the office of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The Dreamers are vowing to continue their hunger strike until Schumer and GOP Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Florida win enough votes in the Senate and the House to delay a vote on the spending bill and force a vote on a clean DREAM Act. They’re pushing for a vote on such a bill on Dec. 22, the date when lawmakers must pass a new spending bill in order to avert a government shutdown.. . . . According to Andiola’s Twitter account, she, along with six other Dreamers and one ally in their cause will be held in a Washington, D.C. jail until at least Tuesday. Andiola says that when they appeared in court, the government requested a hold “in response to their noncooperation.” The Dreamers’ attorneys, complying with their clients’ wishes, didn’t oppose the hold. The group of protesters also believes that ICE has been contacted about Andiola, and therefore faces the risk of deportation.The eight say they will not leave jail without a clean DREAM Act, which seems unlikely to happen in the next few days.
If that doesn’t work, they plan to sing “Henry the Eighth I am” until they get their way.
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