On the sixth anniversary of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Democrats kept the spotlight on President Trump’s efforts to kill the program, and his administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy toward illegal border crossings.
Ahead of Father’s Day weekend, Democratic men joined with immigration advocates outside the Capitol to highlight the crisis for families at the border.
[Also read: Trump administration could be holding 30,000 border kids by August, officials say]
“As the father of a three year and six-year old, on the eve of Father’s Day weekend, I stand ashamed by the actions of the government to separate children from their parents,” said Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo. “A father is a father, migrant or not.”
“I’m hoping that on this Father’s Day, Donald Trump and his administration think about what it means to be a dad,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
The administration has come under heavy fire for the new policy. Trump has blamed Democrats for implementing a law that has tied his hands. In fact, the law allows discretion, and officials previously put detained families in immigration proceedings rather than separate them. The administration defensively issued a press release Friday saying Democrats, not Republicans, are responsible for the “separation of American families due to loved ones lost to illegal alien crime.”
Democrats pushed back this week and will continue the full-court press throughout the weekend. They criticized Trump’s handling of young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children and Republican efforts to stall votes on immigration measures that could help Dreamers.
Every Democrat joined with 23 Republicans to sign onto a discharge petition to force four immigration votes in the House, but moderate Republicans caved to GOP leadership and failed to get the additional two signatures needed.
“What’s worse now is instead of dragging their feet House Republican leadership is torpedoing bipartisan efforts to enact legislation to protect Dreamers,” Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M. said Friday. “Next week instead of voting on four immigration bills, two of which I support, they we will be doing a disservice to the nation by crafting a political dog and pony show that presents us with two appalling legislative options.”
GOP leaders are forging ahead with two immigration proposals. One penned by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is supported by hardliners and another is billed as a compromise between conservative and moderate Republicans. The framework for the compromise bill includes $25 billion for a physical wall, and ends both the Diversity Visa Program and family-based migration. It would provide a pathway to citizenship for some of the young undocumented immigrant population. Both bills include nonstarters for Democrats.
GOP leaders said Thursday that Trump supported their compromise bill, but on Friday morning Trump said he wouldn’t sign it. Later Friday, White House officials said Trump was confused by the question and promised the president supports both bills.
Attempting to capitalize on chaos in the Republican conference and increased backlash over Trump’s crackdown on families crossing the border as well as those seeking asylum, Democrats hammered the administration Friday.
“This is the first time in this era that we’ve had a president who has rejected newcomers to our country,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Friday.
Hours after the Friday press conference, a Department of Homeland Security official said the administration has separated 2,000 children from their parents in just six weeks time.
Democrats plan to increase pressure over the weekend. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., will return to Texas on Sunday, which marks Father’s Day, to tour a Brownsville children detention facility he was barred from entering earlier this month. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt. will join Merkley as they go on a “fact-finding mission investigating the Trump administration’s cruel family separation policy.”
In California, Pelosi will visit the U.S.-Mexico border with 15 other Democrats on Monday. The group will visit at least one detention facility and will talk to border agents about changes in asylum policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this week.
“We have a government that is skirting the rules that Congress passed on asylum and the treatment of children at the border,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill. “Where are the Republicans, where are my colleague on the other side of the aisle that are willing to stand up to their own party leadership, to their own president?
“I see them scared of the president’s itchy Twitter finger.”
