Writing at Huffington Post, Rep. Luis Gutierrez lets loose on Republican Senators, including Marco Rubio, for their craven attempt to score cheap political points after walking away from DREAMers in 2010:
Word is leaking from the Senate that Republicans, facing stiff and well-deserved opposition from most Hispanic voters, are crafting a bill similar to but not nearly as good as the DREAM Act, a bill to legalize the immigration status of young people who grew up in the United States but are currently undocumented immigrants.
Reports indicate that a proposal backed by Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who opposes the DREAM Act, would allow certain young people to eventually earn legal status by attending certain four-year colleges or serving in the U.S. military. The proposal would bar these young people raised in the United States from ever becoming citizens. Similar restrictive or watered down proposals are said to be coming from Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona (both of whom have supported the DREAM Act before now opposing it). Let’s call them collectively the ‘Stolen Dreams’ Act.
This is a very dangerous game these Republican senators are playing with the lives of young people. With zero chance of such a proposal passing the Republican-controlled House, they are hoping to play politics with the immigration issue long enough to soften the Republican Party’s image with Latino and immigrant voters, which, to be blunt, stinks. It is the equivalent of a batter protecting the plate in baseball, sending off foul tips to extend his time at the plate, but without actually swinging or making a serious attempt to get on base.
That’s exactly right. This is politics at its worst; these GOP Senators know that Rep. Lamar Smith, the vehemently anti-immigrant Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, is never, ever going to let their bill move in the House. Some in the GOP may be trying to change their tone (if not their actual policy). Not Smith. Last week, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) noted after another anti-immigrant hearing convened by Smith was a “new high on disgusting behavior.”
As Gutierrez accurately points out about this latest DREAM Act gambit:
It is a tragic commentary on the GOP and how far it has leapt over the anti-immigration cliff.
