Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA)
Oh, those sneaky Republicans. The word "immigration" did not show up anywhere in the official Republican response to the State of the Union as delivered by Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst. But Rep. Carlos Curbelo's official Republican
Spanish response, the policy sections of which were otherwise largely a translation of Ernst's remarks,
slipped it in there.
Without using the word "immigration," Ernst delivered a glancing blow that meshed perfectly with the recent Republican tantrums over President Obama's executive action to protect some immigrants from deportation. "We'll work to correct executive overreach," she said. It was a line perfectly gauged to let the Republican base know what she meant without seeming too extreme for other viewers.
By contrast, Curbelo's message was that "We should also work through the appropriate channels to create permanent solutions for our immigration system, modernize legal immigration, and strengthen our economy. In the past, the president has expressed support for ideas like these. Now we ask him to collaborate with us to get it done." Gosh, that would be nice if that was true and the "permanent solutions" being proposed weren't mostly "build a fence." But whose speech better matches up with actual policies Republicans are pushing in in Congress?
Just a week ago, House Republicans passed a bill to "correct executive overreach" not just by defunding Obama's recent action on immigration but by defunding his 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program—in other words, the House voted to deport the Dreamers. They just called it "correcting executive overreach." Senate Republicans are a little less wild-eyed over this than the House, but that's largely because of the different political realities of the Senate.
Curbelo's approach is one shared by a handful of House and Senate Republicans, but it is light years away from being his party's agenda. And it's significant that this message went only to Spanish speakers. Republicans didn't shift their message on immigration. Rather, they tried to mislead Latinos about where they stand.