Oh, not this fucking game again. “Texas US Sen. John Cornyn calls for 'safe, orderly, humane and legal' immigration reform,” El Paso Times reports this week. The outlet said that following a recent visit to the southern border by President Joe Biden, the GOP senator said that we need “Congress to step up” to provide an “immigration system that is safe, orderly, humane and legal.”
No one believing in that in good faith would argue against it. But the problem here is that this is John “Cornyn Con” Cornyn, who helped derail several crucial immigration proposals at the end of the last Congress (as well as in years past). Now he’s saying we need to act? Why do you keep doing this to families, John? And why do reporters keep falling for it?
RELATED STORY: Republicans dust off 'border first' excuses to derail immigration framework
“This is Cornyn’s MO; say a bunch of pretty reasonable, moderate stuff about immigration and then when it’s time to vote, refuse to budge even a single inch,” noted American Immigration Council Policy Director Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “He helped kill the Afghan Adjustment Act last Congress, for example.”
Of course, Cornyn wasn’t alone in denying permanent relief to thousands of Afghan evacuees and allies. Infuriated advocates said Republican Chuck Grassley “helped torpedo the proposal.” There’d been bipartisan support for including the bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act in the must-pass funding bill, but Chuck blocked that. “While Senator Charles Grassley complained about the August 2021 evacuation of Afghanistan, he sunk this most significant legislation to help Afghans,” the Evacuate Our Allies coalition said.
But back to the geriatric shit-posting troll officially known as John Cornyn III. He’s now supposedly pushing for an immigration fix. Okay. If that’s the actual case, why didn’t he publicly back the bipartisan immigration framework put forward by Thom Tillis and Kyrsten Sinema? It coupled restrictionist border measures along with permanent protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). It was designed to be harsh in order to get Republican support, but it was also more than the alternative plan, which was a heaping plate of nothing.
But nothing is exactly what the Texas Republican supported. “Sen. John Cornyn and other members of GOP leadership said there was scant Republican support for the plan,” CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez tweeted Dec. 14. I think you mean you, John. You refused to support it. Even though Cornyn’s a troll through and through like his colleague Ted Cruz, he really does think of himself as some sort of statesman. Fine. In that case, his word maybe could have carried enough weight to attract eight of his colleagues, assuming he was onboard with Tillis’ plan. Ten GOP senators overall would be needed to overcome the Jim Crow filibuster.
But there’s no indication Cornyn ever made a good faith case for this framework, which was officially dead shortly before Christmas. Happy holidays to undocumented families from the Republican Party. Now just a couple weeks after he helped bury that framework, Cornyn is back to his shenanigans.
Since the time that Cornyn helped kill off relief for DACA recipients, Sinema has also claimed that immigration talks would be coming “back strong” this very month. Good luck with that, because House Republicans have introduced their very first immigration bill of the new Congress, and it’s to enact a total ban on asylum. We have asylum obligations under U.S. and international law, by the way. But House Republicans want to send vulnerable people back to their deaths. Yup, immigration talks definitely coming “back strong.”
RELATED STORIES:
'A bald-faced lie': John Cornyn slammed for Spanish-language ad claiming support for DREAM Act
Cornyn is back to his old tricks by trying to derail the DREAM Act
Grassley 'helped torpedo' proposal including Afghan allies bill in omnibus, angered advocates say
