While the buck stops with Donald Trump when it comes to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program’s termination, he’s getting help in trying to deport 700,000 young immigrants from the only country they’ve ever known as home. Should the Supreme Court allow him to end this popular program, Latino groups are set to punish vulnerable 2020 Republican senators who have failed to lift a finger for DACA recipients, The Hill reports.
Among those who could be targeted by groups like Nuestro PAC include unelected Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona and Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado, who has for years painted a pro-immigrant portrait of himself when reality says otherwise: When Gardner was asked last November whether he supported House-passed legislation putting DACA recipients onto a path to citizenship, “He declined to comment,” The Colorado Independent reported.
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Immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice noted the Colorado senator’s double-speak on immigration during his campaign, writing in 2014 that “Gardner has been going around claiming that he supports reform and has taken actions to further legislation. And that is just not true. It’s so not true that America’s Voice once ran ads letting voters know that Gardner has done nothing for immigration reform. Quite the opposite: he’s blocked legislation and voted to deport DREAMers. Three times.”
McSally, meanwhile, pulled a video from her website in the midst of her primary where she was shown pressuring former Homeland Security secretary and professional kidnapper John Kelly for reassurances that DACA recipients would not be targeted for deportation. "Uncertainty brings fear to my constituents in this position. Can you assure me that they will be protected?" she asked in the deleted video according to CNN. “Kelly assured her they would not be targeted for deportation,” the report said.
The Republic reported that McSally also “dropped her support for immigration-reform legislation that offers a pathway to citizenship for undocumented dreamers in favor of a less generous alternative that also would sharply reduce legal immigration.”
Recent polling shows opponents of DACA are a fringe minority, with an overwhelming majority of Americans saying that even if the Supreme Court returns a decision against the program, the Trump administration should temporarily continue their work permits and protection from deportation until Congress can come up with a solution. “Even in the midst of an unprecedented emergency,” said America’s Voice deputy director Pili Tobar, “we’re not seeing an erosion in Americans’ support for immigrants who live and work here and related pro-immigrant measures.”
“If the Supreme Court rules in their favor, Latino groups say they will continue to engage voters around the issue of immigration, pointing to Trump’s broader hard-line stance on the issue,” The Hill continued. But as important as it is to keep DACA in place, its even more important to pass permanent protections so that young people no longer have to worry about their lives being turned upside down at the whim of a white supremacist president—and getting there includes giving the likes of Gardner and McSally the boot.