Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) let his Republican colleagues have it. They say that Trump's hate filled rhetoric doesn't represent them, until it comes time to work on an immigration bill. Then deporting 5 million families isn't enough?
This comes as... (via The Hill)
The House passed legislation on Thursday authorizing the Speaker to file an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case regarding the legality of President Obama’s executive actions to shield illegal immigrants from deportation.
Passage fell along party lines by a 234-186 vote.
Five Republicans who hold more centrist views on immigration broke with their party to oppose the resolution: Reps. Carlos Curbelo (Fla.), Mario Díaz-Balart (Fla.), Bob Dold (Ill.), Richard Hanna (N.Y.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.).
The unprecedented move will insert the House into one of the most hotly contested Supreme Court cases in the middle of the presidential campaign.
Amicus briefs stating a legal opinion are usually decided by the House’s Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group. But the brief authorized by the resolution passed on Thursday will offer an argument on behalf of the entire House.
From Gutierrez's prepared statement:
Why does the Majority Party not just say what they want? They want millions of immigrants deported.
Out on the campaign trail on immigration we get lies and demagoguery from Republicans – plural.
The debate has sunk to a level where people are actually throwing punches and worse.
....the punches, the shoving, the shouts of “Go back to Africa,” the Hitler salutes -- it is all becoming more than we ever expected and yet, that is the reality we see in 2016.
And now, the Republicans in the House are stoking anti-immigrant fears and mass deportation fantasies some more.
No, they are not leading. They are not calling for calmer rhetoric – let alone more rational policies.
...The vote is a political stunt disguised as a legal brief because the Republican Majority sees a crass political opportunity to stand with the anti-immigration wing of their party.
