In the Huffington Post, Juan Escalante Explains How the GOP’s Obsession with Immigrants is Blocking a Historical Nomination
Over the weekend, after months of slow walking, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced plans to delay a vote on Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch even further. Bitter over their failed effort to shutdown Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a handful of GOP “moderate” senators have been waffling in their support of Lynch, after Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) decided to make the confirmation process yet another Republican referendum on immigration.
In a Huffington Post piece entitled, “Immigration Should Not Hold Back Loretta Lynch,” Juan Escalante, an undocumented immigrant and a Masters in Public Administration candidate at Florida State University, explains how the GOP’s obsession with immigrants is unfairly blocking Lynch’s historic nomination. The full piece is available online here and also follows below:
“Will immigration continue to be the wedge issue of the 114th Congress? You bet.
The dust is still settling from the Department of Homeland Security funding faceoff, a House Republican manufactured crisis, where President Obama’s stalled DACA+ and DACA programs served as the backdrop.
However, a new fight is brewing where Republicans are, yet again, injecting immigration rhetoric.
The confirmation of Loretta Lynch has now dragged on for over four months. If you have been following the story, then you would know that this is the longest it has taken to confirm an attorney general in three decades. You would also know that Vice President Joe Biden might need to spring into action, should the vote to confirm Lynch comes down to a tie. Both clear signs as to how long the Republican Party is willing to drag its feet to get what it wants — to ensure that the President’s executive actions on immigration never see the light of day.
While Senator McConnell assured the American public that he would bring Lynch’s confirmation to a full vote in the following days, only to then turn around and say that Lynch would be considered after the Senate makes headway on a “stalled” human trafficking bill. Again, more stalling and less progress on issue that are vital to our country.
If Loretta Lynch is not confirmed, are they expecting President Obama to nominate somebody who will not agree with his immigration policies? Or are Republican going to leave the United States without an Attorney General through 2016?
Instead of holding back Lynch for her stance on DACA, DACA+, and DAPA, programs that are currently caught up in the courts thanks to a textbook example of judicial activism, why not lead by crafting proposals to solve the status of millions of undocumented immigrants across the United States? This refusal to meet halfway or engage in meaningful negotiations is just politically infantile.
Already the Republican led Congress has signaled that there are no plans to fix our broken immigration system, and insists in using the issue to divide (its own party) and conquer (nothing). What will be the next big issue that our elected officials will use as a bargaining chip to get DACA+ and DAPA repealed?
The Washington Post is right to say that Lynch’s nomination, and possible confirmation, will indeed make history. However, it won’t be because she will be the first African-American woman to be confirmed as Attorney General, nor because of her extensive qualifications. Instead, it will go down in the books as the most drawn out, acrimonious, and partisan confirmation to date.”
RESOURCES:
- Juan Escalante in the Huffington Post:“Immigration Should Not Hold Back Loretta Lynch”
- Civil Rights Leaders, Legal Experts and Immigration Advocates React to Loretta Lynch Delay on America’s Voice Office Hours
- Washington Post Op-Ed from Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson: Why pro-immigration states are fighting back
