Las Vegas Review-Journal

Lurching further to the left

Ryan calls Dem bluff on ICE proposal

- Paul V. Colman Las Vegas Phillip Mlynek Las Vegas

The loud and metastasiz­ing far-left Democratic flank continues its aggressive effort to undermine the party’s efforts to make major gains in the November elections.

Not surprising­ly, Republican­s are all too eager to help — and the results border on the farcical.

Last week, a handful of House Democrats introduced legislatio­n to address the latest fashionabl­e progressiv­e cause du jour. The measure would eliminate the U.S. Immigratio­n and Customs Enforcemen­t agency, replacing it with a more “humane” agency created with the help of “immigrants’ rights” activists.

Can you say “train wreck”?

“This is the agency that gets gangs out of communitie­s, that helps prevent drugs from flowing into our schools, that rescues people from human traffickin­g,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said. “They want to get rid of this agency?”

The measure has no chance of passing, of course. Moderate Democrats would never touch it. But Speaker Ryan was only too happy to announce that he’ll hold a vote on the issue in an effort to identify the open-borders crowd now making noise within the Democratic Party.

“It’s the craziest position I’ve ever seen,” the speaker noted. “And they are just tripping over themselves to move too far to the left. They are out of the mainstream of America. And that is one of the reasons why I feel very good about this fall.”

This has caused great consternat­ion among Democrats, who are outraged and shocked — shocked! — that Republican­s would actually schedule a vote on legislatio­n they proposed. In fact, the bill’s three co-sponsors — Reps. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Adriano Espaillat of New York — now vow to vote against their own proposal.

“We know Speaker (Paul) Ryan is not serious about passing our ‘Establishi­ng a Humane Immigratio­n Enforcemen­t System Act,’ so members of Congress, advocacy groups, and impacted communitie­s will not engage in this political stunt,” the three Democrats said in a statement reported by CNN. “If Speaker Ryan puts our bill on the floor, we plan to vote ‘no’ and will instead use the opportunit­y to force an urgently needed and long-overdue conversati­on on the House floor.”

Say what? Of course the vote is a political ploy. So why walk right into it? The bill itself is also a political stunt. Why offer the measure in the first place if you’re simply trying to appease radical collectivi­sts rather than propose serious legislatio­n? And if you’re truly interested in abolishing ICE, why shed your conviction­s and turn and run when House Republican­s call the bluff?

Reps. Pocan, Jayapal and Espaillat — true profiles in courage.

The views expressed above are those of the Las Vegas Review-journal. All other opinions expressed on the Opinion and Commentary pages are those of the individual artist or author indicated.

The Review-journal welcomes letters to the editor. Letters should not exceed 275 words and must include the writer’s name, mailing address and phone number. Submission­s may be edited and become the property of the Review-journal.

Email letters@reviewjour­nal.com Mail Letters to the Editor

P.O. Box 70

Las Vegas, NV 89125

Fax 702-383-4676 than 20 years in the financial services industry. Also, I have previous teaching experience in the El Rancho Unified School District in California

It’s sad that the fast-track approach produced only 14 teachers. I’ve read in recent Review-journal articles that the district has laid off more than 500 teachers.

Thank you for writing such an enlighteni­ng article. the mysterious undefined term— paying your “fair share.” I would hope during our next legislativ­e session something like this is adopted for Nevada.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States