Few things exemplify the dysfunction of American politics like the closure of the U.S. government, but few things warrant such histrionics as does the plight of America’s so-called DREAMer children.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and other Democrats were right to put an end to deceit and malfeasance by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, choosing to protect innocent children engulfed in this country’s morbid immigration battle.
The political act of shutting down the government is the height of partisan theatrics. But faced with untrustworthy political “compatriots” in the White House and both houses of Congress, it’s difficult to blame Democrats for reaching for this bludgeon to halt the ongoing deportation of potentially tens of thousands of children and young adults. Democrats acted to protect people that an overwhelming number of Americans, including Republicans, have repeatedly said they want excepted from other immigration laws.
And in response, the White House and Congressional Republicans launched a barrage of outright lies. This shut-down isn’t about a political party putting the needs of illegal immigrants above those of the rest of America, it’s about averting a certain humanitarian crisis fueled by Trump and his extremist right-wing faction in Congress.
Years of seedy stunts by Republican leaders in Congress culminated in outright Trumpian fabrications beginning Saturday when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others tried to paint Democrats as wanting to shut down the government in hopes of creating an illegal immigration free-for-all in the country. Trump released a paid ad saying Democrats were now complicit in crimes committed by illegal immigrants. Even for a man notorious for his infamous lies and false allegations, this is beyond the now-usual antics.
This was never about anything but blameless children being caught up in hopeless politics.
Former President Barack Obama compelled the country onto a path of common sense and decency in 2012 when he imposed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, by executive order. The measure gives children raised in the United States, brought here by their undocumented parents, a reprieve from the threat of deportation. Obama had no choice but to impose the awkward rules because a GOP-controlled Congress has, for years, refused to enact realistic immigration reform. While illegal-immigrant adults are still suffering in political purgatory, at least those children who qualify for the DACA program have been shown some mercy. It’s a no-brainer.
The lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent children just as American as every one of us hang in the balance right now. Trump undermined the DACA program by executive order late last year, and more than 16,000 DACA kids have become vulnerable to Trump’s ramped-up deportation machine. More than 100 DACA kids each day join those ranks.
Trump and most of the Republicans in Congress have made it perfectly clear they will easily sacrifice those children’s lives. They want to barter them for being able to lock out immigrants from “shithole countries” or for the ability to rob American taxpayers of tens of billions of dollars for an absurd border wall.
Now, this cruel, shrill faction has the power of congressional roadblock and the power of the White House. Trump is the fuse and fuel for this relentless and unscrupulous movement.
Democrats and Republicans who understand the plight of DACA kids, and the humanitarian, righteous need to except them from the country’s immigration conundrum, understand Trump cannot be trusted to come through on DREAMers’ behalf. The president has proven himself to be a capricious and tempestuous liar. Without the leverage of a government shutdown, Trump and his cluster will have DACA kids waiting in ICE prisons for deportation before the end of the this school year.
The drastic tactic of shutting down the government is dangerous, but trusting Trump and Republican extremists to avert a DACA humanitarian crisis would be far worse. Senate Democrats did the right thing.