We agree that the whole GOP rebranding thing is deader than a doornail, right? And because it's dead, Republican lawmakers are scurrying like cockroaches to hate on all people who are present in this country because their parents brought them here.
On Tuesday, Rep. Darrel Issa (R-CA) circulated a letter to his Republican colleagues demanding President Obama end a 2012 presidential initiative that has kept some undocumented immigrants from deportation proceedings. Issa’s reasoning? That initiative is responsible for the current stream of unaccompanied child refugees through the southern border. This is despite the fact that residency restrictions would disqualify applicants who came in after June 15, 2007.
In particular, Issa’s letter to his colleagues pointed to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for instigating the humanitarian crisis in which more than 90,000 unaccompanied children are expected to come into the United States by the end of this year. Issa also blamed the President for doing “little to end the perception” that the children won’t receive preferential immigration status after they get into the United States. The letter in part stated that “the only way to effectively end the current crisis and prevent any future surge is to end the President’s failed policies … President Obama has done little to end the perception that unaccompanied alien children will not receive preferential immigration status.” Issa asked his colleagues to sign the letter by the end of business day Thursday. Issa sent a similar letter to the President to end DACA.
The DACA program granted temporary legal presence and work authorization to qualified undocumented immigrants — at least 553,000 thus far– brought to the country as children. With a cut-off date of June 15, 2007, the program is only applicable for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country at least seven years ago and have fulfilled numerous requirements.
This is Issa's attempt to confuse the issue of children being dumped on the borders with the sons and daughters of immigrants who have lived in this country for quite some time. One of these things is not like the other, and if Republicans had any heart at all, they would deal with the immigration reform issue sooner rather than later to help those kids who have nowhere to turn.
