Republican leaders are laying bare the fact that their desire to maintain their hold on power vastly exceeds their interest in helping Dreamers or the country.
The ongoing intra-GOP squabbling over the discharge petition, which is designed to force action on a vote for Dreamers, boils down the following: Republican leaders, including retiring Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), are again siding with anti-immigrant hardliners and blocking efforts to protect Dreamers – ignoring the will of the American public, their own public comments supportive of Dreamers, and the needs of the country.
As Politico reported, House Majority Leader McCarthy explicitly told Republican colleagues that protecting Dreamers would hurt the Republicans’ prospects of maintaining power, noting that Republican voter “intensity levels are still not there, and discharge petitions release the power of the floor that the American people gave us the responsibly to hold.”
Never mind that, in poll after poll, more than 80 percent of these same American peoplewant Congress to act to protect Dreamers. And when it comes to “responsibility,” the public wants responsible action on common sense and common decency threshold issues such as protecting Dreamers, not internal legislative machinations designed to subvert votes and block progress.
According to Juan Escalante, DACA recipient and Communications Manager at America’s Voice:
By trying to block a vote on Dreamer legislation, Republican leaders continue to demonstrate that their interest is in their party and not the wishes of the American people. So much for the supposed legacy and pro-Dreamer promises of the retiring Paul Ryan. And Kevin McCarthy would rather ignore that California is home to the largest population of DACA recipients and instead side with the hardliners, who are intent on blocking the future of Dreamers in this country. I have no intention of stopping my advocacy efforts to secure the passage of legislation that protects me, my brothers, and Dreamers all across the country. It’s time to deliver for the American people and push Congress to move forward on a vote for Dreamers.
