House Republicans' extremist immigration bill would literally criminalize Dreamers for being poor

Kerry Eleveld

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday January 25, 2018 · 6:29 AM PST

2018/01/25 · 06:29

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 22: U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) listens to questions during his weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol June 22, 2017 in Washington, DC. Ryan answered a range of questions but declined to comment on the contents of the health care plan being presented by senate Republicans. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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Republicans are in the hot seat now to come up with some workable solution for Dreamers before the February 8 deadline since they wouldn't allow a vote on the bipartisan compromise in the Senate. But in many ways, the real sticking point is in the House, where Speaker Paul Ryan will have to face down the nativist wing of his party—the faction that has hijacked the GOP's immigration policy—to put anything even remotely reasonable up for a vote. So let's take a look at the DACA solution that group of geniuses has jammed into the Goodlatte-McCaul SAF Act, hailed by the White House as addressing "the status of the DACA population in a responsible fashion." Here's a recap from David Bier of the CATO Institute, a conservative think tank that has panned the bill as a "net negative," which is putting it lightly.

Take, for example, the status provided to Dreamers in this bill. It requires them to maintain an annual income of at least 125 percent of the poverty line (p. 396). If they fall below that level for 90 days—not only are they subject to deportation again—they would be criminals. This bill literally criminalizes poverty among Dreamers.

These guys are truly sick. Fully 77 Republicans (and 0 Democrats) have signed on to this bill and its "responsible" solution for DACA recipients. And it doesn't just find a way to criminalize Dreamers, there's more.

The worst enforcement provision is criminalizing simply being in the United States without status or violating any aspect of civil immigration law (p. 170). This would turn millions of unauthorized immigrants into criminals overnight. It would also criminalize legal immigrants who fail to update their addresses, carry their green card with them at all times, or otherwise abide by the million inane regulations that Congress imposes on them. [...]

This legislation would immediately undo much of the progress that the Feds have made on criminal justice reform and reducing its prison population.

This bill is ludicrous and so extreme in so many ways that Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi gave Ryan a creative way out weeks ago by suggesting he put two immigration bills up for a vote—the SAF Act and the bipartisan bill authored by Reps. Will Hurd (R-TX) and Pete Aguilar (D-CA). In other words, let's see which one garners more support—her bet clearly being that the bill immediately criminalizing millions of people would fail on its own merits. It wasn't a sure thing, but Pelosi is a very good vote counter and she didn't think it had the juice.

Naturally, Ryan didn't take her suggestion but he also didn't have any good ideas of his own, so he simply worked assiduously to kill any and every solution that came his way. Apparently, that's Ryan's brand of leadership—if you're too dimwitted to come up with any good ideas, just kill everyone else's so the truly awful ones are all that's left.

Democrats should be talking about this bill every chance they get. It will alienate mainstream America and the more Americans realize what’s actually in it, the better.

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