Tag: amnesty

Republicans Helped Make the Politics of DACA So Toxic. The problem is that the legislative branch, dominated by Republicans for quite a while, has refused to do much of anything regarding the millions of people who live and are building their lives in America without any legal right to be here. After venting publicly about Obama, and privately about Trump, Republican lawmakers should blame themselves for the toxic politics of ending DACA. If you’ve been in the country for a few months or years without legal status, that’s your problem. If you’ve been in the country for two or three decades without legal status, that’s the government’s problem. Decades of Republican lies about immigration reform and enforcement have led us to this point. The amnesty wasn’t as limited as promised, and the enforcement never came. Since that time, every few years, a new “comprehensive” approach to immigration tries to bring Republicans back to the 1980s. Part of his success in convincing restrictionists that he was serious was his willingness to say impolitic or even outright racist things when talking about the issue. Even so, they should still take up the opportunity to resolve the legal status of the “Dreamers” and everyone else living here without the full protection of the law too.