Democrats in Disarray: Unsure Whether to Push Amnesty-or-Shutdown Agenda

amnesty
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
John Binder
Washington, D.C.

Democrats are in disarray over the issue of immigration, as the caucus finds itself split between more moderate members and the open borders component of the party.

When it comes to demanding amnesty for illegal aliens shielded from deportation by the President Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Democrat leaders are giving up on trying to shut down the federal government by holding up the upcoming spending bill unless DACA amnesty is included.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), for example, say shutting down the government to get DACA amnesty in the upcoming spending bill is not the Democrats’ plan.

The Hill reports:

“I think that’s probably the best policy for us to do,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip. “It’s also politically the most feasible way to get an omnibus passed.”

…

“There’s not a whole lot of reason to negotiate – to do anything that is not already covered by the court decision,” Pelosi said Thursday.

“It is necessary for us to pass [the omnibus] to defend our country, to invest in our children’s future, to keep America number one in every respect, to do so in a way that creates jobs,” she added.

Likewise, amnesty’s biggest defender in the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), told Fox News Sunday that there would be no shutdown effort on behalf of the Democrats when it comes to the spending bill.

Durbin said:

We’re not going to have a shutdown, but I’m urging the leaders to basically come together and understand there is an emergency at hand here. 780,000 young people have their lives hanging in the balance because President Trump killed the DACA program. We have to move on a bipartisan basis to put it back in business. [Emphasis added]

On the other hand, not all Democrats are sticking to the plan.

For example, pro-open borders Rep. Luis Gutierrez has signed onto a letter, along with 83 fellow Democratic congressmen, in which they demand that the upcoming spending bill include an expansive amnesty that would give the majority of the 12 to 30 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. a pathway to citizenship.

Gutierrez’s demands do not stop at a large-scale amnesty for illegal aliens. The group of Democrats also demand the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lose funding for their efforts to enforce federal immigration laws and drop all funds that would go towards constructing a wall along the southern border to stop illegal immigration.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), a prominent defender of open borders in the Senate, has hinted at only supporting a spending bill that includes amnesty for illegal aliens.

Regardless, a DACA amnesty would come with tremendous costs for American citizens.

For example, a DACA amnesty would put more citizen children of illegal aliens — known as “anchor babies” — on federal welfare, as Breitbart News reported, while American taxpayers would be left with, potentially, a $26 billion bill.

Additionally, about one in five DACA illegal aliens, after an amnesty, would end up on food stamps, while at least one in seven would go on Medicaid.

Any plan to give amnesty to DACA illegal aliens that does not also include provisions to halve legal immigration levels — the U.S. admits more than one million legal immigrants a year at the expense of America’s working and middle class — would give amnestied illegal aliens the opportunity to bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the country.

At the southern border, a DACA amnesty has the potential to trigger a border surge that could triple the number of illegal aliens pouring through the border. Since DACA’s inception, more than 2,100 recipients of the program have been kicked off because they were found to be either criminals or gang members.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

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