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In the wee hours of Thursday morning, the Department of Homeland Security released a batshit insane press release slamming the bipartisan bill a handful of senators crafted to try to find a compromise on immigration. It was really, really insane, as in something that should never, ever be released by a functioning government agency. Here's just a sample.
The Schumer-Rounds-Collins proposal destroys the ability of the men and women from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to remove millions of illegal aliens. It would be the end of immigration enforcement in America and only serve to draw millions more illegal aliens with no way to remove them. By halting immigration enforcement for all aliens who will arrive before June 2018, it ignores the lessons of 9/11 and significantly increases the risk of crime and terrorism.
It is an egregious violation of the four compromise pillars laid out by the President’s immigration reform framework. Instead of helping to secure the border as the President has repeatedly asked Congress to do, it would do the exact opposite and make our border far more open and porous. It would ensure a massive wave of new illegal immigration by exacerbating the pull factors caused by legal loopholes. By keeping chain migration intact, the amendment would expand the total legalized population to potentially ten million new legal aliens—simultaneously leading to undercutting the wages of American workers, threatening public safety and undermining national security.
While that has all the hallmarks of a rant from the leading white supremacist in the White House, Stephen Miller, it apparently can be attributed to an unnamed former staffer of batshit insane Tom Tancredo, at least according to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. The White House itself issued a slightly less inflammatory statement hours later (via email).
The Administration strongly opposes passage of the Schumer-Rounds-Collins Amendment. This Amendment would drastically change our national immigration policy for the worse by weakening border security and undercutting existing immigration law. Specifically, preventing enforcement with respect to people who entered our country illegally before a date that is in the future would produce a flood of new illegal immigration in the coming months. The Amendment would undermine the safety and security of American families and impede economic growth for American workers.
Yeah, none of that is true, by the way. The statement reiterates that it's Trump's way on immigration or the highway. The only thing the Democrats have a hand in offering in Thursday afternoon's votes are two bipartisan bills—this one, and another that Delaware Sen. Chris Coons worked on with the absent Sen. John McCain. Neither are likely to get the 60 votes to pass, now that the White House has put down its marker.
Which makes the Democrats' attempts to negotiate away immigration rights even more pointless. There is no good solution here beyond forcing a clean vote on the Dream Act after everything else fails. As of now, that doesn't seem to be Chuck Schumer's intent.