With Stephen Miller’s fingerprints all over latest leaked draft of White House immigration principles, will Members of Congress fall for Miller’s attempt to scuttle legislation for Dreamers?
Washington, DC – The fingerprints of White House advisor and nativist activist Stephen Miller are all over the forthcoming White House immigration principles. Let’s be clear: Miller’s goal is to blow up any potential deal for Dreamers. President Trump, other White House advisors, and Congressional Republicans will need to pick sides – either getting something done for Dreamers or allowing Miller and the anti-immigrant cabal to deliberately derail legislation.
Leading media observers were quick to capture the significance of Miller’s latest leak on White House principles. Elise Foley and Matt Fuller wrote in a HuffPost analysis, “Is This White House Aide Trying To Sink A Deal On DACA?”:
Word among Republican aides briefed on Miller’s motives is that he is trying to blow up a deal on DACA, using demands on legal immigration to open up a broader conversation that he knows will impede a smaller agreement. One aide familiar with the discussions put it starkly: “Either the president is negotiating in bad faith, or Stephen Miller has hijacked the negotiation … The Stephen Miller wish list is a non-starter with Democrats, and this divides Republicans in both the House and Senate. Until Miller takes a backseat, the DACA deal is going nowhere.”
And CNN’s Jim Acosta and Daniella Diaz wrote, “Top WH aide’s DACA demands threaten to scuttle legislative fix”:
Demands by top White House policy adviser Stephen Miller during sensitive negotiations about protecting young undocumented immigrants from deportation could derail congressional efforts to find a legislative solution, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN. The source said Miller has injected himself into talks between lawmakers and is making the issue more difficult by coming to the table with unreasonable demands on behalf of the White House
According to Frank Sharry, Executive Director of America’s Voice Education Fund, “The anti-Dreamer cabal is scheming to blow up a decent Dreamer bill. Stephen Miller, along with Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), and hardliner allies, are scheming to load up any bill with poison pills in an attempt to kill it.”
Miller’s leaked principles arrive at the end of a week in which Dreamers were front and center across the country telling their powerful stories – and a week in which tens of thousands of DACA recipients lost their DACA status as a result of the artificial and cruel October 5th renewal deadline. As we said yesterday, the same Trump Administration that relied on a manufactured crisis to end the DACA program in the first place has created an all-too-real crisis for thousands of these young Americans. As a result, we are facing an urgent crisis that requires urgent action.
Concluded Sharry, “President Trump and Members of Congress need to decide – do they want to resolve this crisis, or do they want to fall prey to Stephen Miller et al’s strategy to kill legislation and expose all 800,000 DACA beneficiaries to deportation?”
Follow Frank Sharry and America’s Voice Education Fund on Twitter: @FrankSharry and @AmericasVoice
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