House Dems rally behind immigrants after GOP passes pro-deportation bill

By Henni Espinosa, ABS-CBN North America Bureau

August 5, 2014

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – House Democrats are now slamming Republicans for passing border funding bills they said would not only tear families apart, but dismiss a crisis that’s become a big humanitarian concern.

They told voters that if they want a comprehensive immigration reform bill to pass, which would provide legalization to about 11 million undocumented immigrants, they need to vote more Democrats in the House.

“Rather than working with Democrats and the bi-partisan way, House Republicans are once again giving in to the most extreme of their party to bring a mean-spirited bill that will break up families and go after those who want to build a better life for themselves, their families and their communities,” said Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-New Mexico.

“It is the Republican Party caucus that began to reach out after the 2012 November debacle that reelected President Barack Obama and they said, ‘We need to do something different. We need to reach out to that Latino community. We need to sensitize ourselves to their needs.’ It’s as though they had amnesia and had forgotten and had abandoned that role,” said Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois.

Before Congress went on a five-week vacation, House Republicans passed bills that seek to revise a 2008 anti-human trafficking law that would make it easier to deport unaccompanied undocumented children from Central America.

During the Bush administration, Congress passed this law to protect immigrant children from sex traffickers trying to bring them to the United States. It required judges to hold hearings for young immigrants from countries other than neighboring Mexico and Canada, preventing them from possibly getting turned away at the border. This law has partly been blamed for the delay in the removal proceedings of these unaccompanied minors.

Besides seeking to amend this law, the GOP bills would also reimburse governors who deploy their National Guard troops to the border.

Another bill would also put a stop to President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program or DACA, that has already allowed about 600,000 young undocumented immigrants to stay and work in the country.

Critics said the bills have no chance of passing in the Democrat-dominated Senate. And even if President Obama has previously expressed support to change the 2008 anti-human trafficking law, the president has opposed these new border funding measures by the GOP.