The clock is ticking until Republicans take a slim control of the House of Representatives, where Kevin McCarthy has been campaigning for speaker by sucking up to the worst of the worst in his caucus, including neo-Nazi-allied Marjorie Taylor Greene. Some of that sucking up has included promising to racist rags that he’ll take up no humane immigration legislation. I write “humane” because House Republicans are sure to take up immigration bills, but it’ll be the kind of shit pushed by noted white supremacist Stephen Miller and other assorted hate groups. Republicans are even making clear they’ll oppose naming post offices, for Christ’s sake.
It’s why young undocumented immigrants have been feverishly pushing for legislative action now, in the lame duck session. They’re backed in a rare joint letter from four House caucus chairs to Senate leadership calling for permanent relief as soon as possible.
RELATED STORY: DACA recipients, leading Democrats push for legalization deal in lame duck session
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”For too long, Dreamers have lived in a state of constant legal instability with their lives cruelly hanging in the balance,” Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Raul Ruiz, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Joyce Beatty, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Judy Chu, and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal tell Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
This instability has only been exacerbated in the recent weeks. While court litigation in late 2020 forced the previous administration to fully reopen the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for the first time since 2017, GOP litigation led by Texas has again limited who can apply for two-year work permits and deportation relief. The anti-immigrant judge who issued a ruling in the case has now asked attorneys to propose a schedule on moving forward with the case, making DACA’s end not a matter of if, but a matter of when.
”Congress must not let this year end without taking immediate action to deliver permanent relief to Dreamers once and for all,” lawmakers continued. But that’s in the hands of senators, they write. “While the House of Representatives has already passed H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act, with broad support, the Senate has yet to act on legislation that would provide Dreamers and estimated 700,000 [DACA] recipients, and individuals eligible for DACA, with permanent protections from deportation.”
“Senate Democrats need at least 10 Republicans on board to break a filibuster and advance legislation,” CNN reported late last month. The report said that Sen. Dick Durbin noted during a recent press conference with affected individuals that “he knows of ‘four or five’ Republican senators who would support a fix but conceded ‘we need more.’ He declined to detail what a fix would like.”
But Durbin also said more than a year ago that he thought he was close to getting the 60 needed to overcome the Jim Crow filibuster. But there could be some hope in the fact that a number of Republicans crossed over to support and pass the Respect for Marriage Act last late month. Let’s add the fact that permanent relief for young immigrants is overwhelmingly popular among Americans. It’s a loser only for losers like Miller. And when mainstream outlets all too often parrot the words of anti-immigrant hate groups and frame immigrants as a problem, let’s remember that recent exit polling showed most Americans viewed immigrants as beneficial to the nation.
“Does anyone think for one minute that America would be better off if we start deporting doctors and nurses … and those who are protected by DACA? The answer is clearly no,” Durbin said during recent floor remarks. There are roughly 34,000 DACA recipients working in the health care field.
“We need 10 Republican Senators to join all the Democrats,” Durbin continued. “We can break the filibuster [and] get the supermajority we need under the Senate rules … We need less political posturing and more compromise and determination. We should start now in this lame duck session to protect the Dreamers, for their future and our own.”
Affected individuals and allies are set to rally in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday to continue their calls for legislative relief. During a recent interview with MSNBC’s José Diaz Balart, United We Dream Executive Director Greisa Martinez Rosas said “[t]his is the moment for Democrats and Republicans to do their job in Congress.” She pointed to Arizona, where young immigrants defied conventional wisdom and naysaying to pass in-state tuition rates for undocumented students, reversing a ban passed by three-quarters of voters some 15 years ago.
”I believe that it’s important for us to see what has happened in places like Arizona, where we have faced incoming and incoming attacks against undocumented people,” she said in a release received by Daily Kos. “And just this November, Arizona organizers in places like LUCHA and ADAC and many others showed up and showed out. Voters … are demanding action on this … This is their opportunity to deliver and President [Biden] has promised clear action on this and is on his watch.”
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We're now in the fourth week of election overtime and there is still tons more great news for Democrats to exult over on this episode of The Downballot.
