After the government shutdown last weekend, the one thing that should be clear to Democrats is that the Republicans aren’t interested in taking part in any immigration deal.
Their position was already clear in 2013 and 2014 when Speaker John Boehner shelved the 'Gang of Eight' comprehensive immigration reform bill that the Senate passed by a vote of 68 to 32.
If the Republicans wanted border security, there was $46 billion for it in that bill, including $8 billion for a Southern Border Fencing Strategy. Instead, they threw one of their own, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, under the bus for supporting it.
Fast forward to September 5, 2017 when a tweet was sent like a decree from on high.
Trump isn’t as stupid or crazy as he looks. If you consider how bills are passed, he gave his partners, Ryan and McConnell, not Congress, six months to pass DACA legislation. The Democratic minorities in the House and Senate had no possible way of legislating what they wanted but voters would desert them if they said so. It’s a fact that’s probably better left unsaid if the Democrats are going to stay in the game.
The weeks and months rolled onward with activists calling for a clean DACA bill, while the Democrats had no ability to deliver it, clean or otherwise. The one card they had to play was a government shutdown which was possible if a number of Republicans voted for it, too.
There was no reason to believe that the public would support a shutdown, especially one that went on long enough for them to feel the harmful effects it would bring. There was no reason to believe that a long shutdown would ever make the Republicans change their minds about immigration. And there was no reason to believe that the media would get the story straight, either.
It had to be done anyway for the sake of 800,000 people who are depending on a promise made by the federal government. It had to be done for the sake of all of us, too. If the federal government is allowed to renege on the promise it made, a damaging message would be delivered that the United States government cannot be trusted to act in a decent, honorable or reliable manner.
Trump’s six month deadline for DACA legislation would be due on March 5, 2018 if it were legally binding. Several lawsuits were filed in federal court to challenge it.
In the case filed by Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California versus DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Judge William Alsup granted a nationwide preliminary injunction limiting the DACA phase-out pending judicial review. Judge Alsup questioned the Trump administration’s reason for ordering an end to the DACA program which began under a lawful exercise of executive authority. In his decision, he said that he “found the plaintiffs plausibly alleged that racial animus towards Mexicans and Latinos was a motivating factor” in nixing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.”
Homeland Security posted the following notice on its website:
“Due to a federal court order, USCIS has resumed accepting requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA. Until further notice, and unless otherwise provided in this guidance, the DACA policy will be operated on the terms in place before it was rescinded on Sept. 5, 2017.”
The Republicans have no legitimate reason to end DACA. The only reasons they have are bigotry and racism. Trump’s own words prove it.