Three GOP dodges on DACA no one should fall for - By Jennifer Rubin
By Jennifer Rubin September 5 at 1:44 PM
Republican reaction to President Trump’s decision to rescind Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) so far falls into one of three categories, none of them positive if you want to prevent the deportation of 800,000 young people who came here through no fault of their own. No one on the GOP side is offering a quick bill to fix DACA that could be expedited through Congress. That should dispel any notion they are serious about helping the DACA permittees.
One reaction among Republicans is to throw it back in the president’s court, as if there is a contest to see whether the president or Republican lawmakers can be more spineless. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who once championed immigration reform, proclaimed, “Congress has to act. But on this matter, the White House and the president will have to lead.” No, senator, you could lead by putting DACA into a bill, introducing it and imploring your fellow Republicans to vote on it. Rubio, just like Trump, is only interested in escaping responsibility for an inhumane decision.
Another variation is to suggest DACA be part of comprehensive immigration reform. Pro-immigration reform senators seem to have fallen into this trap. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) put out a statement, which read in part:
President Trump’s decision to eliminate DACA is the wrong approach to immigration policy at a time when both sides of the aisle need to come together to reform our broken immigration system and secure the border. . . .
The federal government has a responsibility to defend and secure our borders, but we must do so in a way that upholds all that is decent and exceptional about our nation. I will be working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to devise and pass comprehensive immigration reform, which will include the DREAM Act.
This is a terrible idea. Comprehensive reform would take months and in all likelihood end in failure since anti-immigrant types refuse to agree to any “amnesty” that is a path to legal status — and now want to cut legal immigration. Why should innocent young people be held hostage to months of fruitless haggling over immigration reform, which the House would not even take up after the Gang of Eight’s bill which passed the Senate?
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