Party of Trump Fails to Protect DREAMers
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The best chance of protecting DREAMers has been filibustered to death by Senate Republicans:
The latest attempt at immigration reform, including protections to prevent “Dreamers” from being deported, collapsed in the Senate Thursday as a bipartisan bill seen as having the best chance at passage failed to get enough support to advance.
President Trump had threatened to veto the bill — which shielded the young immigrants in exchange for $25 billion in border security — because it did not include the curbs on legal immigration he sought.
The breakdown in the Senate likely leaves the fate of Dreamers in the hands of federal courts. Two federal judges have temporarily blocked Trump from ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals on March 5. But Trump administration attorneys are seeking relief from the Supreme Court, which could announce as soon as Friday whether it will decide the matter.
It marked the first veto threat of Trump’s presidency, a bold move against an effort that had been painstakingly crafted by a group of 16 senators — Republicans, Democrats and one independent — working for weeks behind closed doors to reach a consensus.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his leadership team appeared confident they could blame Democrats, after Schumer led his party into a three-day government shutdown to force the immigration votes, for failing to embrace the White House efforts.
Still, surely Republican elites are united against Donald Trump’s racism!
Trump’s harsh criticism of the Rounds-King compromise marks a hardening of his immigration position.
“President Trump has shown a remarkable ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on the Senate floor.
But the president wasn’t acting alone, as Republican leaders, who had promised a free-wheeling and open debate, threw their support behind the White House’s preference, making sure the bipartisan effort was hobbled before the final vote.
[…]
Even before the president weighed in, the Department of Homeland Security launched a a scathing attack on the Rounds-King bill ahead of Thursday’s votes in a move that stunned some senators.
The Trump-supported bill failed by an even greater margin. The GOP leadership wouldn’t have supported it if they actually wanted protections for the DREAMers to pass.
But the Actions of Trump, McConnell and the DHS will surely generate criticism, proving that being out of power is actually a position of greater power than being in power!
Anyway, DREAMers are not going to be protected because:
- Republicans don’t want to protect DREAMers
- They control the relevant veto points
- That’s it.
And it’s not just Trump. Mitt Romney going far right on immigration in the 2012 primaries was the canary in the coalmine that shouldn’t be forgotten.