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The discharge petition that could force an immigration vote in the House of Representatives is just three signatures away from succeeding—and Republican leaders are aiding the spineless House Speaker Paul Ryan in blocking it by any and all means.
Nearly all Democrats have signed on. Texas’s Henry Cuellar is the lone holdout, who called for assurances wall funding isn’t part of any deal, but has said he’d sign if he’s needed, (you are, congressman!). That means only two more Republicans are needed to buck Ryan.
Protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) have the support of nearly 90 percent of Americans—numbers only cake and puppies get—yet Republican leaders are letting the Steve King wing of the party run the show. But these days, it’s pretty hard to tell them apart.
"I think it would be devastating,” Republican Whip Steve Scalise commented, “if something like the DREAM Act passed.” Putting young Americans-in-waiting on a path to citizenship is “devastating,” he said. Seriously.
Then there’s Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is itching for Ryan’s speakership. When he apparently heard that Florida Republican Dennis Ross was close to joining the petition, he called to offer him a deal to make him back off.
McCarthy phoned Ross on Monday and offered the Florida Republican what he wanted in hopes of keeping him from joining the moderates' discharge petition: the promise of a vote on a guest worker program before August recess.
Of course, nothing for DACA recipients. It’s been more than a year since Ryan assured a DACA recipient that she had nothing to worry about, and over a year since he could have backed up that assurance by letting the DREAM Act come to the floor.
Instead, he, McCarthy and Scalise are appeasing their racist base in an election year by sabotaging the efforts of “moderate” Republicans, even though they could easily buck Ryan. And once McCarthy takes over their party leadership, they should be prepared to get stabbed in the back by him too, since they all support him as their leader.
Enough already. Keep calling in support of the discharge petition—and get out this November to elect leaders who will stand with America’s Dreamers.