Video of McSally urging DACA solution is removed
A video of U.S. Rep. Martha McSally calling for a solution for undocumented children who were brought to the United States “at no fault of their own” was quietly removed from her official YouTube channel, another sign that she is trying to delete her past record as a moderate Republican on immigration now that she has shifted to a harderline stance.
In the now-gone video from last year, McSally, now a U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona, pushed both parties to come together on legislation to help recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a program that shields young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children from deportation. She also encouraged her fellow lawmakers to support the Recognizing America’s Children Act, which McSally removed her name from in March.
CNN first reported on the removal of the video clip of McSally questioning John Kelly, who at the time was President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security.
McSally’s media staff sent out the video link in a June 7, 2017, news release. The footage showed McSally asking Kelly to assure her that 57,000 DACA recipients in Arizona would be protected.
Then-President Barack Obama cre-
ated DACA in 2012 via executive action; Trump has been trying to end the program but has faced legal challenges.
When Kelly said that it is Congress, and not the Department of Homeland Security, that needs to act on the issue, McSally asked fellow congressional members to find a compassionate solution for DACA recipients.
“I want to urge our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to deal with reality — forget about ideology or how we got here,” McSally said at the hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee. “But now we’re dealing with reality and we’ve got to solve this problem based on what’s practical and what’s compassionate and also upholding the rule of law and the precedent.”
McSally’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
McSally has backed away from DACA legislation she previously endorsed since she announced her Senate candidacy in January.
McSally was a co-sponsor of the Recognizing America’s Children Act, a bill that was viewed as the Republican-initiated alternative to the 2017 Dream Act.
In January, she introduced the Securing America’s Future Act, a tougher GOP bill that addresses border security, including funding for Trump’s border wall, and cracks down on so-called sanctuary communities in addition to addressing the DACA population.
McSally is now locked in a fierce three-way battle with two other immigration hard-liners, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former
Rep. Martha McSally’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
state Sen. Kelli Ward, in Arizona’s Aug. 28 GOP Senate primary.
“She has been obviously re-examining some of those positions that she heretofore had taken,” said Republican consultant Chuck Coughlin of HighGround Inc. in Phoenix.
Coughlin added that immigration is a tough issue for a Republican to navigate in a Republican primary, although immigration reform is supported by a majority of Arizona’s general electorate.
Where the bill that McSally supported earlier would make DACA recipients conditional permanent residents who could travel without a visa for trips under 120 days, the Securing America’s Future Act would bestow “contingent non-immigrant status” on DACA recipients.
That would require authorization for international travel and limit it to 15 consecutive days and a total of 90 days within three years.
It also requires a $1,000 border-security fee with the application for legal status.
Two other videos highlighted in McSally’s 2017 press release, which focused on infrastructure funding for ports of entry and McSally’s bill to fund staffing shortages at the border and ports of entry, were not removed.
McSally’s questions to Kelly are preserved in a video of the full June 2017 hearing on the House Homeland Security Committee’s webpage.