DREAMERS IN LIMBO AFTER ANNOUNCEMENT
Trump passes the buck to Congress, giving them 6 months to make DACA law Analysis: Trump’s decision could drive another wedge in Republican party
“To target these young people is wrong — because they have done nothing wrong. It is self-defeating — because they want to start new businesses, staff our labs, serve in our military, and otherwise contribute to the country we love. And it is cruel.” — Former President Barack Obama “The decision to end DACA is not just wrong, it is particularly cruel to offer young people the American Dream, encourage them to come out of the shadows and trust our government, and then punish them for it.” — Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO “Undocumented students who were brought to the U.S. through no fault of their own are working, going to school, living their lives, and contributing billions to the American economy.’ — Rep. Barbara Lee, Berkeley “These young people deserve better than that.” — Sen. Kamala Harris “To have a lawful system of immigration that serves the national interest, we cannot admit everyone who would like to come here. That is an open border policy and the American people have rightly rejected it.” — Attorney General Jeff Sessions “I do not favor punishing children, most of whom are now adults, for the actions of their parents. But we must also recognize that we are a nation of opportunity because we are a nation of laws.” — President Donald Trump “There are ways to be compassionate to people short of giving them work permits and federal benefits.” — Laura Ingraham, talk-show host “Former #DACA’s will make great ‘Peace Corp’ volunteers in home countries.” — Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa “We have to recognize ... two negative consequences of that action. One, we create a new opportunity for citizenship through chain migration for their parents, the very people who violated the law by bringing them here as children in the first place. And two, we encourage other people around the world to bring their children here illegally.” — Sen Tom Cotton, R-Ark.
President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind a popular program that protected the most sympathetic of immigrants here illegally — those who were brought as children by their parents — poses a huge threat to his party, forcing Republican lawmakers to choose between the party’s nativist wing, which strongly opposes any move resembling amnesty, and those who favor a more flexible approach to minority communities.
The terms Trump set out give Republicans in Congress six months to pass a measure to protect those currently covered by the Deferred Action for Child-
hood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which was enacted under executive authority by President Barack Obama.
But Congress has been unable for years to come up with immigration reforms, in large part because of divisions within Republican ranks, which sank immigration reform efforts under Obama and George W. Bush.
Worst case
The worst-case scenario for many GOP lawmakers: If Congress stalls again, next year’s midterm election campaigns could be accompanied by thousands of young people each week being fired from their jobs or kicked out of school, and ultimately by some being deported to countries they have not seen since they were toddlers.
Some Republican strategists fear that revoking DACA could repeat on a national scale the damage Republicans in California incurred by supporting Proposition 187. That 1994 measure aimed at immigrants living in the U.S. illegally turned the California party from one that was competitive, and often victorious, in statewide elections to nearly an afterthought, disdained not only by Latinos but many moderate white voters.
Countering those fears are warnings by other Republicans that legislation to renew DACA would be the biggest grant of amnesty to immigrants here illegally since the Reagan administration. Passage of a legalization bill by a Republican Congress would deeply alienate many conservatives, they argued. Already, some were critical of Trump for not canceling the program outright.
The divisions within the GOP could be seen in the immediate aftermath of the administration’s announcement. Among Democratic lawmakers, the condemnation was swift and near universal. Many Republicans, by contrast, tried to avoid comment, and those who did talk offered widely divided reactions.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said he hoped both houses of Congress would act to ensure that “those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on the other hand, insisted that any break for DACA recipients should be coupled with a bill he has proposed, with White House backing, that would reduce the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country legally.
“I’m not going to support just a blanket amnesty,” he said.
Some moderate Republicans suggested as a potential saving grace something that usually inspires dread: an all-out war within their party in which, they hope, their brand of Republicans can defend immigrants and put forward a broader and more aspirational definition of America.
But the fight ahead is just as likely to draw attention to the nationalist wing of the party.
For decades, many Republicans mindful of the declining number of white voters — the bulwark of the party — have argued that the GOP must embrace Latinos, Asians and others or be flattened by an eventual demographic wave. In 2016, slightly more than 7 in 10 voters were white, down from 9 in 10 when Reagan was elected in 1980. Latinos made up slightly more than 1 in 10 voters last year.
The announcement Tuesday came as a rebuff to efforts to broaden the GOP appeal to minorities.
Former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin, a Republican who legally emigrated from Mexico at the age of 14, cried as she called Trump’s cancellation of the DACA program “a low hit to our gut.”
“I don’t know this party, I don’t recognize this party. This is not the party that I fought for, for 32 years, to improve its standing in the Latino community,” she said.
The central argument that has long been advanced by supporters of the DACA program — that people brought to the U.S. as children should not be blamed for their parents’ actions — has won broad support from the public. An NBC News/ SurveyMonkey poll released last week, for example, found that 64 percent of Americans supported the DACA protections.
Voter support
Even Trump’s most loyal voters were sympathetic: Among white workingclass voters — those who propelled Trump’s important victories in the upper Midwest — 56 percent supported the DACA program.
Some laboring to elect Republicans said they hoped for a quick congressional judgment in favor of DACA recipients, believing that could rescue their party from a backlash.
“The Republicans running Congress have an opportunity to come through,” veteran Republican strategist Rob Stutzman said. “If they fail and those who have grown up in this country as Americans are forced back to countries they don’t know, that will be a catastrophically bad moment for the GOP.”
At the presidential level, Republicans have gained little ground among Latinos in recent elections. In 2013, party officials wrote a report urging that future candidates overtly appeal to the community.