Rep. Luis Gutierrez ripped the Republicans for their symbolic effort to pretend they did something about the crisis at the border. It's a sight to behold.
August 1, 2014

I thought I was done with the crazy hot mess Republicans created with their xenophobic and evil twin sister "screw the immigrants" bill, but I can't let Friday night fade without something worth applauding.

Here's Rep. Luis Gutierrez, calling Republicans lazy cowards. The transcript follows.

How did we get here? In the dark of night Republicans are voting to deport DREAMers, take away the DACA program, and make every undocumented immigrant deportable.

In 2012 the Republicans were shellacked and they spoke of turning over a new leaf with younger voters, with Asian voters, with women and Latinos.

A year ago I was working with Congressman Sam Johnson and Judge Carter of Texas. I did town halls and public appearances with Judge Carter and with Congressman Valadao. I worked with Mike Coffman of Denver and stood up with Aaron Schock and Adam Kinsinger in my own state of Illinois.

But now Steve King, Michele Bachmann and Ted Cruz are literally writing the immigration script for the Republican Party. A script filled with ugly and mean policies to demonize children and marginalize immigrants and destroy families.

In January you were saying that all of the DREAMers should get green cards and citizenship.

We always understood you wanted to deport their parents.

But now, late on a Friday night you are going after the DREAMers who have known no other country. Who risked their identities and their families to come forward and sign up with the Department of Homeland Security and passed FBI background checks.

The United States said come forward and get right with the law and now Republicans are saying they should go back in the shadows and back to a life of fear where opportunities are few and futures are uncertain.

The voters had a referendum on this program back in 2012 and the winner was President Obama, the DREAMers, and the American people.

But now you want to take that all away. Thank God the Senate is gone, the President has called this veto-bait, and this will never become law.

Is there no one in your conference who can stand up and talk sensibly when others in your party want to demonize children at the border and deport the DREAMers?

You are so frozen in fear of your own voters – so frozen in fear of your own colleagues – and the nation needs you to be courageous.

Only cowards scapegoat children and only those who are ashamed of themselves do it after hours on a Friday night.

You are apparently not strong enough to stand up and craft real solutions to American problems.

But here is the truth revealed about the Republican Party in the last few weeks and why all of the talk this year about immigration reform was just talk.

In the end, the Republican position on immigration can be summed up as “deport ‘em all.”

When push comes to shove, your party is standing by the simplistic desire to deport ‘em all.

Most of you know that the approach of deport ‘em all is nonsense as an immigration policy, as a security policy, and as an economic policy.

And you know it is suicide as a political strategy.

But there are dozens and dozens of good, decent, charitable Republicans who know we must do something to fix our immigration system – But you stand with the ones who shout and scream the loudest and are saying deport ‘em all.

It is not too late. Don’t succumb to fear. For those Republicans with a conscience and who are brave enough to stand by DREAMers like you did just six months ago.

Please vote “no” with me on this bill. All you need is a little courage.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon