The Hill’s Rafael Bernard reports on a little measure that is going nowhere, but, it is very interesting to see why from the Democrat point of view
Dreamers-for-wall trade going nowhere in House
A deal to reopen the government by trading border wall funding for immigration benefits for so-called Dreamers doesn’t stand a chance in the House, according to legislators on both sides of the aisle.
House Democrats say they don’t trust President Trump to keep his end of any bargain, and are wary of negotiating a deal that could benefit those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program while throwing other undocumented immigrants under the bus.
Got that? They’ve been yammering about these Dreamers for a long time, caterwauling about helping them, yet, are unwilling to help these kids who were “brought to the U.S. through no fault of their own so they shouldn’t be punished” because it would mean implementing measures that would make it a lot more difficult for foreign nationals from crossing the border illegally. They would prefer open borders over helping the so-called Dreamers.
And, really, they wouldn’t even be giving Trump a wall
That bill would have granted a path to citizenship to Dreamers both within and outside DACA in exchange for technological and manpower investments in border security, but no wall construction.
The Hurd-Aguilar bill, which lacked the support of GOP leadership, never made it to the floor.
Aguilar ruled out even preliminary cross-aisle negotiations while the partial government shutdown is in effect.
“If Republicans want to have conversations, we’re always happy to, and you know that I will continue to have conversations with Republicans about a long-term solution to this. But we can’t negotiate while the government is shut down, period,” he said.
From the point of view of Trump and most in the GOP this would have been a non-starter as there is no money for the wall. Further, this would have given upwards of 800,000 illegal alien kids eligible for DACA a pathway to citizenship, would have allowed their parents who committed the sin of bringing them illegal to stay, and allowed them to bring in many more relatives. What Democrats would get would outweigh what the GOP would get by a factor of, what, 100-1?
But the fact that this bill, which would give Democrats tons more benefits than the GOP would get, that would provide almost meaningless border security methods, is going nowhere with Democrats shows that they really do not want to Do Something about Dreamers, that they just want to have an issue to thunder about on the floors of the House and Senate, as well as in front of cameras.
Further, they are sticking with the plan of refusing to talk about securing our southern border (and, yes, we do need to do something about the 45% of illegals who overstayed their visas), which is a duty given them in the Constitution, until such time as the GOP and President Trump give them everything they want. And we know that Democrats will refuse to discuss it once government is re-opened.
If Democrats do not want a wall, here’s an easy solution: the minute someone is caught crossing the border illegally they are put back on the other side. Period. No hearings, no long processes, we caught you, bye. Then a wall wouldn’t be that necessary.
