Washington, DC – The following is a statement from America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas reacting to House passage today of H.R.2 along an almost party line vote:
“House Republicans’ passage of H.R.2 is a perfect encapsulation of the GOP’s dangerous descent on immigration – it’s a grab bag of cruel and unworkable policies at odds with the national interest and it’s more about political attack ads and MAGA fundraising than real solutions.
Rep. McClintock of California initiated the debate, offering a vile construct for passage of HR 2 by invoking the white nationalist great replacement conspiracy theory. Despite the strong-arming of leadership and the millions spent by Republicans in the 2022 election cycle on anti-immigrant ads, the Republicans were unable to muster all of the votes from their own conference because it is such an extreme bill.
House Democrats need to be commended for holding together and voting against this obvious effort to fearmonger and divide. Democrats have nothing to gain and much to lose if they would have joined Republicans in putting forward cruelty and extremism instead of lasting solutions supported by the American people.”
Just see the contrasting statements of Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA 05) and Rep. Jayapal (D-WA 07) for reminders of what’s at stake and what constitutes responsible policymaking.
- Pramila Jayapal tweeted: “Republicans’ immigration bill isn’t just inhumane – it includes ZERO real solutions to help fix our broken immigration system. They want to go back to Trump-era policies of child detention & rejecting asylum seekers. It’s cruel, extreme, & unworkable, and we won’t let it happen.”
- America’s Voice Political Director Zachary Mueller lifted up McClintock use of invasion rhetoric: “Starting off today ahead of the Child Detention Act (HR2) vote @RepMcClintock uses the halls of congress to echo white nationalist great replacement conspiracy theory directly linked to multiple domestic terrorist attacks as he warns of a so-called ‘invasion.’”
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