Earlier, we wrote about how Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) slammed Republicans for their all-out assault on DACA as well as executive action. Today, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) along with more than a hundred other House Democrats, sent the below letter to Speaker Boehner asking him to stop playing politics with immigrants’ lives, and to pass real immigration reform instead. As the letter in part reads:
It is our hope that the House Majority does the right thing. We urge you to refrain from playing politics with this important issue by attaching language to the Homeland Security funding bill that defunds the President’s executive order on immigration. This will only set the House up for another manufactured crisis. Attempting to defund DHS over the President’s Executive Order will put at risk our ability to prevent terrorism at home and patrol our border. We would be jeopardizing our national security.
Furthermore, this executive action will save lives, keep families together, and reaffirm that the United States thrives as a nation of immigrants. When you meet with your conference, please consider what is in the best interest of our nation.
Americans have been waiting on Congress for years to fix our immigration system, and we have yet to act. Gaming the appropriations process and using the Homeland Security funding bill as a way to defund the President’s immigration executive order is a political shot that misses the mark and puts our nation at risk. We stand ready to work with you to fix our broken immigration system through a thoughtful bipartisan process – but, not through political wrangling in closed-door meetings. Simply put, that is no way to effectively govern or address one of our nation’s biggest issues – fixing our broken immigration system.