In the heat of the 2020 race, Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn made a bold claim in a Spanish-language ad, saying that he “strongly supports the legalization of Dreamers.” On Wednesday, undocumented young immigrants, their allies, and a mariachi band rallied outside his Houston office to demand he put those words to action and support the DREAM Act, introduced by bipartisan senators in February.
“Today, I took action alongside other immigrant youth to remind Senator Cornyn that we haven’t forgotten the platform he ran on during his 2020 re-election campaign when he promised to support the Dream Act,” United We Dream (UWD) member Susie Lujano said in a statement received by Daily Kos. More than 109,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients in Texas alone stand to be protected by the legislation that Cornyn can support today.
“Cornyn’s office insists that he has supported the cause of dreamers to obtain a permanent solution ‘for a long time and continues to this day,’” the Houston Chronicle reported. But a look at the actual record reveals a different story. “On the Senate floor, Cornyn has had numerous opportunities to vote yes” on the DREAM Act, immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice (AV) noted last year. But “[e]very time, he’s voted no.” The group has trademarked the doublespeak as “the Cornyn Con.”
On legislation introduced this Congress, Cornyn “hasn’t publicly expressed an opinion specifically about the current bill so far,” Houston Chronicle reported. But just because Cornyn is slicker than a snake in Crisco oil doesn’t mean undocumented youth are letting him off the hook. Norma Gonzalez, UWD Texas lead organizer, said they were showing up to hold him accountable.
“It’s time for Sen. Cornyn to live up to his words and do what is morally right and popular among the majority of Americans,” she said in the statement. “The moment we are in is urgent, and if Republican Senators like Cornyn don’t support these bills in good faith, we are urging Senate Democrats to move forward on their own. There is no time for excuses.”
Mirroring an action outside the home of Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio last month, immigrants, the mariachi band, and allies including Black Lives Matter Houston, Texas Organizing Project, Indivisible Houston, Our Revolution, Swing TX Left, The Cornyn Weekly Office Protest, Houston Rebel Alliance, Jolt TX, Home Coalition, and Immigrant Families and Students in the Struggle went on to protest outside the Houston home of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. “The caravan was accompanied by a truck carrying on oversized inflatable of a spider with the head as Cruz,” Houston Chronicle continued.
In the rally outside Rubio’s home last month, UWD national campaign manager Thomas Kennedy said that “[t]ime and again, Marco Rubio has failed to take action to protect immigrants from deportation. Right now, he has an opportunity to chart a new path forward and begin correcting his record on immigration by prioritizing a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented people.” UWD Florida member Idalia Quinteros said that if Rubio “refuses to follow through to protect immigrant youth like me, then Democrats must use their power and pass protections without him.”
“Immigrant youth took action today to hold Senator Cornyn accountable to his word and to urge him to vote ‘YES’ on a pathway to citizenship for our communities by April 30,” Gonzalez said. “In his 2020 re-election campaign, Sen. Cornyn vocalized his support for the Dream Act but has since taken issue with the humane treatment of undocumented people and made a spectacle of immigrants seeking asylum at the southern border.”
Both Cornyn and Cruz were part of a stunt at the border that purported to now express concern about the treatment of children at the border, despite spending the past four years ignoring the treatment of children at the border. The stunt also sought to portray an almost cartoonishly dangerous border region despite the presence of a nearby two-story party boat featuring full dance floor and bar. Cornyn’s always full of complaints—just look at this Twitter feed—so here’s his chance to be part of a solution, if he really wants one.
“With millions of undocumented immigrants facing the ongoing threat of deportation and remaining excluded from federal pandemic relief because of their immigration status, delaying the Dream, Secure and Farm Workforce Modernization bills from passing the Senate deliberately puts millions of lives on the line,” Gonzalez said.