Following 13 months of stalling by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Democrats on Wednesday attempted to advance House-passed legislation putting Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients onto a path to citizenship, just one of the items legislators worked to pass through unanimous consent (UC) that day. Senate Democrats were successful in passing a loan program extension, but one Republican senator blocked the dreams of young immigrants on the other legislation.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois “spoke eloquently, as he has done on many occasions over many years, about immigrant heroes, including Cinthya Ramirez, a Dreamer and health care professional with DACA,” advocacy group America’s Voice said. “She would be able to remain in America permanently if the Dream and Promise Act was approved.” But: “Immediately following Sen. Durbin’s remarks, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas came to the floor to object to Sen. Durbin’s motion, blocking a vote on the Dream and Promise Act for now.”
Houston Chronicle reports Cruz used his time on the floor to condemn the Supreme Court’s historic decision ruling the Trump administration illegally ended the DACA program as a “particularly disgraceful opinion,” launch into a gross attack about immigrants and crime, and say that the Senate should instead be focused on other priorities, like the novel coronavirus disaster.
Ted, we also wish that the Senate would be more focused on the pandemic and pass the HEROES Act to help everyday families who are still struggling after getting one single $1,200 check weeks and weeks ago (if they were fortunate enough to get one at all). But that bill, also passed by the House, is still languishing on McConnell’s desk. Cruz is instead saving his trademark theatrical bloviating for the C-SPAN cameras and his Twitter followers, and not to help the over 100,000 DACA recipients who call his state home.
He also escalated attacks on the DACA program itself, calling it illegal even though the Supreme Court decided no such thing. Again, what the court said was that the president that Cruz defends unlawfully acted in his attempt to separate hundreds of thousands of young people from their families and communities. “Cruz also said DACA led to a wave of unaccompanied children arriving at the border and has encouraged human trafficking—claims that have been debunked,” the Chronicle continued.
“It’s worth noting who didn’t get sent to the floor to trash immigrants and thwart Dreamers and TPS holders,” America’s Voice founder and executive director Frank Sharry said. “Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Martha McSally (R-AZ) and David Perdue (R-GA) were nowhere to be found. They face reelection in diverse states and dehumanizing immigrants a la Donald Trump and Ted Cruz may not play very well outside of the shrinking cul-de-sac that is Trump’s core of white grievance voters.”
“Ted Cruz should be ashamed—where is the junior Texas Senator’s empathy for over 100,000 Dreamers working in Texas, the only place they have ever called home?” Texas representative and Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair Joaquin Castro said, according to the Chronicle. “Today’s obstruction is yet another example of unfounded animosity towards DACA recipients who are hardworking, outstanding members of our American family.”