The Right-wing's newest hysteria: kids.
If you're a fan of deporting refugee children, today might just be a day to celebrate
because:
House Republicans will try to pass a bill addressing the border crisis next week with a pared-back price tag of less than $1 billion, according to multiple sources.
The mood in a Friday morning closed-door GOP meeting was mostly positive, and much of the strident opposition from conservatives that GOP aides and lawmakers expected did not materialize, according to sources present. Leadership is cautiously confident that a package will reach the floor next week before the chamber recesses for its August break.
Their bill would provide about one-third of the funds requested by President Obama to address the situation and would also change a 2008 law to make it easier to quickly deport unaccompanied children from Central America. But while Republicans put on a happy face today about the prospects for their deportation plan, it's clear they are worried about being able to get enough Republican votes to pass the package, in part because Shadow Speaker Ted Cruz
has been meeting with House Republicans and encouraging them to not pass anything.
Cruz's argument to conservatives is that if the House passes a bill, Senate Democrats will insist on changes. That's a pretty crazy reason to not pass a bill, especially since House Republicans would have to approve any changes proposed by Senate Democrats, but since when has making sense mattered to the Cruz crowd?
GOP leadership is trying to rally support for its plan in part by telling their conference that if they don't act next week, they will face angry voters during the August recess, but they are also trying to bribe them with yet another vote on a separate piece of legislation to deport more DREAMers, even though DREAMers have nothing to do with the wave of unaccompanied minors prompting the current crisis.
We'll know next week whether Republicans have the votes to pass their funding bill, but even if they do, in order to actually pass something into law, they'll need to agree to some sort of compromise with the Senate, which seems extremely unlikely. Meanwhile, the situation on the border—and the conditions in the countries from which these children are fleeing—will remain unchanged.
Meanwhile, as Markos wrote yesterday, it's important to remember this isn't an immigration crisis, this is a refugee crisis. Overall, the number of undocumented immigrants attempting to enter the United States has dropped from one million between 1983 and 2006 to 400,000 last year. That drop dwarfs the number of refugee children, who numbered about 60,000 since October, most of whom have family in the United States who can house them while they apply for refugee status. Nonetheless, despite the fact that these kids are fleeing from horrific violence and poverty, the only question on the GOP's mind is how to send them back as quickly as possible.