In the last few weeks, quite a number of Senate and House Republicans have come out in favor of ending DACA/deferred action, either because they think doing so will halt the influx of children coming to the border, or as part of the response to the children. The list of Republicans explicitly calling for an end to DACA include:
- Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY): “I’m supportive of the House bill [to deport DREAMers] and I think it will go a long way to fixing the problem.”
- Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) said he supports ending DACA as part of any border crisis plan, a comment that’s attracted notice since Dent is considered a moderate.
- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said DACA “needs to end.”
- Another Gang of 8 Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said “it is in our interest to wind down this program.”
- Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that ending DACA is his “top priority.”
- Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL): “Certainly, DACA and the President’s other numerous unlawful policies must be terminated.”
- Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) said Obama “must end the deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA), a policy decision that should be left to Congress,” apparently forgetting that we tried that with the DREAM Act in 2010.
- Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said DREAMers should revert to the “status that they were in prior to this program being established,” i.e. a position in which they could be and regularly were deported.
- And Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to Obama asking the President to end DACA, which was signed by 32 other House Republicans, namely Reps. Pete Sessions (TX), Sam Graves (MO), Lamar Smith (TX), Blake Farenthold (TX), Bilirakis (FL), Blackburn (TN), McClinktock (CA), Duncan (TN), Cotton (AR), Bridenstine (OK), Nunnelee and Harper (MS), LaMalfa (CA), Gosas (AZ), Jenkins (KS), Hartzler (MO), Cole (OK), Mullin (OK), Calvert (CA), Wenstrup (OH), Foxx (NC), Crenshaw (FL, Gingrey (GA, Wittman (VA), Hall (TX), Campbell (CA), Williams (TX), Stockman (TX), Benishek (FL), Jolly (FL), Yoho (FL), Griffin (AR).
- Rep. Mo Brooks said that all DREAMers with DACA and all undocumented immigrants should be deported.
- Even more Republicans have tried linking DACA to the children fleeing violence, presumably as a way to try and end the former.
There you have it. It hasn’t been enough for Republicans to take no action on immigration reform or give Steve King multiple votes to end deferred action. Now many are directly calling for the termination of the program — more evidence for Greg Sargent’s argument is reverting back to a pre-Election 2012 mentality where they embraced their position as the party of mass deportations.
Because we need to be clear. Calling for an end to DACA/deferred action means calling for the US to restart the deportation of DREAMers. It means taking away work permits and driver’s licenses from them. It means taking away their livelihoods and the successes they’ve had in pursuing the American Dream. That’s the GOP is after.
Plenty of people could tell them that it’s a dumb move:
Not sure why House Rs would want to make folks like Denham, Coffman, Valadao, Gardner vote on ending DACA
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) July 25, 2014
But apparently, that’s exactly how short-sighted the GOP is.
