House Speaker John Boehner and his right-wing band of mad men are at it again, offering no solutions but using their power to show exactly how they feel about immigrants.
The “Mad Hatter-in-Chief,” Boehner and many on the right—with the exception of 26 level-headed Republicans—passed an amendment Wednesday, Jan. 14 to a Department of Homeland Security funding bill sponsored by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.
That amendment aims to block funds for President Barack Obama’s 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and overturns the president’s immigration executive actions back to 2011, which, of course, means attacking those “Dreamers,” young undocumented immigrants, the president has wisely given protection to.
The new GOP plan of attack would also restore the much-criticized Secure Communities program and give it increased funding, while taking away the president’s authority to set priorities for deportation. Of course, the irony in all this is that, at the same time, the GOP House is threatening to take away funding for the Department of Homeland Security and shut it down. Oh the madness!
And there is more. Here is Boehner himself showing his lunacy over the bill that passed 236-191. “We do not take this action lightly, but simply there is no alternative. It’s not a dispute between the parties or even between the branches of our government. This executive overreach is an affront to the rule of law and to the Constitution itself,” said the great B.
Still, the silver lining from this all is the 26 brave Republican centrist representatives who have emerged and showed prudence and common sense in voting against the measures.
Big kudos to them! They all recognize the power of the immigrant and Latino vote, unlike the Grand Ole Party stuck in the past.
Denham, more so than most, gets this. He accused the bill of scapegoating the innocent, telling reporters at the bicameral GOP retreat last Thursday at a resort in Pennsylvania, “I think not having a clear message on the issue is a drag on the party.
“It not only sets us back on immigration reform, I think it sends a mixed message to the American public, which we’re going to have to straighten out, “TPM.com quoted him as saying. “Just throwing DACA out there early without having an overall reform bill, I think, brings great concern—not only from the Senate colleagues that I’ve talked to but the folks in my district that I’ve talked to.”
Boehner would be wise to listen, especially with that immigrant son-in-law of his now part of his family! America’s face and color is thankfully changing, Boehner. Time to get with the program or say bye, bye in 2016.
The writer is CMO of Hard Beat Communications, which owns the brands News Americas Now, CaribPR Wire and Invest Caribbean Now.