Immigrant youth and allies delivered 1,000,000 petition signatures to Congress on Tuesday, demanding passage of a clean DREAM Act to put undocumented immigrant youth on a path to citizenship following Donald Trump cowardly ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“However,” notes a release from America’s Voice, “instead of moving the Dream Act forward, House Republicans are scheduling floor time for a very different type of bill”:
The House Rules Committee is meeting on the Criminal Alien Gang Member Removal Act later this afternoon, with a potential floor vote in the House later this week. The bill is the latest Republican effort to malign immigrants as “dangerous criminals” in order to justify more deportations and detentions and less due process and access to justice.
Specifically, the proposed House bill would create a new and overly broad definition of “criminal gang” membership, allowing the government to indiscriminately deport immigrants based on appearances; establish new powers of deportation and mandatory detention; bar access to humanitarian protection for victims of gangs; excuse racial profiling; and eviscerate due process protections.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have already been shown to doctor information in order to falsely accuse immigrant youth of gang membership, including one Seattle DACA recipient who was detained for six weeks until a judge released him. Now congressional Republicans are set on cueing up racist, anti-immigrant legislation instead of following through with their positive words about DACA recipients after Trump ended the program last week.
“With raids on the horizon, with teenagers blocked from applying for DACA, with the prospect of losing our jobs, we need a clean Dream Act, and we need it now,” said United We Dream leader Greisa Martinez.
According to conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell “could put a DACA fix on the floors of their respective houses and pass it today”:
With unanimous Democratic votes and a batch of moderates Republicans on record in some fashion in support of DACA, it would likely clear the House. In the Senate, I can think of 12 Republicans off the top of my head who could break a filibuster: The four Republicans from the Gang of Eight, plus Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Orrin Hatch of Utah, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Cory Gardner of Colorado, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Joni Ernst of Iowa, have all spoken favorably about a legislative fix for DACA.
There were 1,000,000 petition signatories from UWD, ACLU, America’s Voice, CREDO, MoveOn, NAKASEC, National Immigration Law Center, Parents Together Action, People for the American Way, Presente, Working Families Party, and the Daily Kos community—who contributed over 300,000 signatures—who agree. We need a legislative fix for DACA recipients, and we need it now.
Lynn Tramonte of America’s Voice, who helped organize the petition delivery with cosponsors Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, Coalition on Human Needs, National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights:
“After the President’s cruel decision to end DACA last week, we were heartened to see so many Members of Congress, including some Republicans, commit to advancing a legislative fix. Of course, doing so would require President Trump and Republican leaders to stand up to the ‘Steve King Wing’ of the Republican conference. Instead, House Republican leaders are scheduling floor time on a bill that gives Steve King his wish—a hook to once again call immigrant youth criminals, gang-bangers, and drug dealers with ‘calves the size of cantaloupes.’
“This is not constructive legislating, it’s destructive fear-mongering. It is an offensive and irresponsible use of valuable floor time. This is exactly the type of stunt Americans are so tired of: Congress using its power to make political statements and divide us, instead of advancing common sense solutions that enjoy bipartisan support and move the country forward.
“You can’t say that you stand with Dreamers while pushing legislation to scapegoat and deport them. It really is that simple. The only immigration-related bill Congress should be teeing up is the bipartisan, bicameral Dream Act.”