Just a quick search tells us that George Santos hadn’t specifically mentioned legalization addressing young undocumented immigrants on his Twitter feed for more a year and a half, until this past weekend. Why would that have changed after a year and a half? Sure, he hadn’t entered office until just now. But he’s also eager to not talk about his galaxy of lies, his past as a drag performer (there’s nothing wrong with drag, by the way, it’s Santos’ party that says there is), and alleged thievery from a dying dog.
Some people facing a public relations disaster might just shut fuck up and stay off the radar. But Santos has the instincts of a professional liar, and that’s to concoct more lies to cover up the lies that have you in hot water. In this case, he’s spewing lies about efforts to protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
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“Just a reminder to the dreamers (DACA Recipients),” Santos wrote in a tweet on Saturday. “Democrats controlled the House of reps, Senate and, White House for two years and did not give you guys a resolve. Democrats don’t want to fix immigration. Republicans will!” Like young immigrants somehow need a reminder about the legislative battles they’ve helped craft and lead, especially from a man who was busy concocting a fake life while they waged those fights.
But his claims about Republicans delivering? Come on, man. The whole reason why activists and some Democratic lawmakers had been pushing the senate parliamentarian (remember her?) over and over again on the inclusion of immigration provisions in the budget reconciliation bill back in 2021 is because 10 GOP senators would not join Democrats in overcoming the Jim Crow filibuster.
Republicans made their opposition to legislative relief more than clear and continued to obstruct the following year, when silver-haired troll John Cornyn helped derail another attempt to pass protections as part of a spending package.
Oh, but it’s still Democrats who were in charge last year, Kitara George might argue. They could have found a way to pass something if they really wanted to. Fine, let’s go back to the last time that Republicans held control. In 2018, Republicans held both the White House and Senate, yet still rejected numerous opportunities to enact permanent relief. The insurrectionist president had rescinded the DACA program just months before, meaning Republicans were ignoring real public sentiment demanding urgent action.
One proposal from Democrats would’ve given them $25 billion for the stupid wall in exchange for protections. We know walls don’t work, but the proposal still would’ve given it to them anyway, and it was still rejected. So not only have they been dishonest about wanting to enact relief for DACA recipients, its clear the wall wasn’t direly needed either.
“My most controversial stance as a Republican is supporting the resolve to #DACA,” Santos tweeted in 2020. I mean, at that time it probably was his most controversial. Little did we know what was to be revealed. “I 100% support granting them green cards,” Santos continued. “While very unpopular among my party I still think we have more to gain from their contributions in our society.”
You are there now, George. Here’s your chance. Go to McCarthy and tell him that it’s long past time to enact legislative relief for DACA recipients and their families, and see what he tells you. But don’t be shocked if you get a cold reception. Maybe he’ll tell you what you want to hear, like when he was trying to lock down his speakership votes. But just keep in mind that it’s Marjorie Taylor Greene he’s promised to take care of, not you.