Surprise, surprise.
The Republican House just passed a bill to un-do DACA President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy. They did this as part of a deal they reached on Friday in the dead of night. Four Democrats voted with Republicans; eleven Republicans voted against the bill.
This was the price the SCruz wing demanded for passage of a $694 million border security bill, because denying asylum hearings for children who are fleeing violence and extreme poverty wasn’t cruel enough.
Fortunately for the idea of sanity, the bill has zero chance of becoming law. The Senate will not consider it, and the President would not sign it. It will be ignored, except as a candle held up to highlight Republican inhumanity. The ads against Republicans for the next decade practically write themselves.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) put it this way: "Only cowards scapegoat children and only those who are ashamed of themselves do it after hours on a Friday night." He added later, "In the end, the Republican position on immigration can be summed up as 'deport 'em all.'"
Congress left Washington for a 5-week weekend, after which it has about 20 working days left before the end of the year. They clearly don’t intend to actually take any actual action.
Since nothing sane has happened, and since even Republicans are demanding that Something Must Be Done, President Obama has promised to act alone to handle the refugee crisis. Apparently, he isn’t frightened by John Boehner’s fake lawsuit. Or else he’s just doing what Republicans told him to do on Thursday.
This do-nothing Congress has even found a way to be inhuman while doing nothing. Surprise.