One thing I was told that echoes something that Kyle Griffin of MSNBC tweeted earlier: a real worry with Democrats that a prolonged shutdown right now in the current state of play would run a huge risk of making DACA unpopular with suburban centrist voters whose support will be needed to get this passed.
Someone ran a poll through the weekend and found support for DACA and DREAMers wavering already. The thinking: if promised a vote on a bipartisan compromise and it doesn’t happen by February 8, then DREAMers are less likely to be “blamed” for the shutdown and instead become even more sympathetic figures than they currently are.
I’d like to deport anyone who sanctioned or participated in the removal of people that have lived here for years, working, paying taxes, raising families, owning businesses, contributing to their communities, etc.
While I have no problem keeping people who have been good citizens (although how one manages to do all those things without any legal paperwork such as SSN, licenses required etc) I find it hard to condemn people who have removed them because they were just following the laws. Do you have a problem with people who follow the laws or are you okay of we pick and choose which ones we want to follow?
I sometimes think you try to make things more nuanced that they sometimes are. Whether it is good or bad, if it is depicted as the government being forced to “close” because of illegals then many people will side against the illegals. When paychecks don’t show up minds will be made up.
I don’t understand why anyone thinks DACA is such a huge issue for Democrats. It’s something we should take care of, but it’s not like there are many single-issue voters about it.
DACA is not a hill to die on. It’s not a winner unless it’s easy. It just doesn’t impact enough people directly. Sorry, but that’s just how things are right now.
I think the debate about parents status would be covered under the larger immigration reform, and for which Americans have largely varied opinions. It’s the DACA recipients’ path to citizenship which has widespread support.
The GOP term for sponsoring close family relations is “chain migration” and I’d consider that quite an immigration hostile terminology. It’s unfortunately getting linked to DACA, even though the process of sponsoring family member is incredibly long (10-15 years on average, unless it’s your wife or parent) and filled with lots of checks, financial guarantees, security validations and paperwork. There’s no logical reason to end the practice of these family based sponsorships. DACA recipients can’t sponsor family members anyway, since even in the best case, it’ll be years before they become US citizen and able to sponsor their parents.
Yes, there are 800,000 Dreamers. But the deal today also provided six years of funding for CHIP which protects 1.7 million kids.
(The fact that we’re discussing this as “Deal means Dems postpone DACA” instead of “Deal means Dems get funding for CHIP” just shows how bad Dems are at messaging.)
I don’t that’s the case. DACA is a popular policy initiative. DREAMers are sympathetic individuals. In both cases, that policy and sympathy have miles of support that is apparently only inches deep, and the nightmare scenario for Democrats and DREAMers alike would be having that popularity and sympathy erode significantly as average Americans who are not overly beholden to either party start casting around for blame.
Let’s think about this logically and not let our emotions cloud reality.
I simply do not believe DACA is truly a critical issue to most Americans. To me, a critical issue means a single issue voter issue. If something is this important to you, you will not vote for someone who feels differently even if every other position they have is a perfect match for you. This is not DACA for almost anyone outside those directly affected.
If you ask people whether they support DACA, i think almost all democrats would say yes and most republicans would also say yes. However, this is not the same as “do you think DACA is worth shutting down the government” or “would you vote for a democrat if the republican didn’t support DACA.”
Whether you think the Democrats should have shut down the government or not is not in question. It has already been done and you can’t unfire the bullet. The question is what now.
There is a point in time when you’re at middle school and that kid who got held back 3 times is beating the shit out of you. You’re lying on the ground and you realize that you can either stay down on the ground, giving him your money like you have time and time again, or you can stand up and fight for once in your life. This is that moment for the Democratic party who has been rightfully and accurately accused of being mostly spineless cowards who cave instantly whenever the going gets tough.
Most progressives support dreamers from what i’ve seen, but even more than that, progressives want to see that Democrats are capable of standing up. If they don’t stand up now, when will they? The answer of course is never. Every time you preemptively give up because things are tough or you know you can’t win, it just gets easier and easier to give up. This is the modern democratic party.
And lets not fool ourselves. Any promise of future rewards republicans give in return for democratic support now is bullshit. At this point everyone knows that their word doesn’t mean crap. Even if republicans go in to it honestly (which is highly unlikely), one word from trump and they will cave.
You are no doubt correct - looking at the WaPo article more closely the 1.7 million number is just the kids in the 24 states threatened by a cutoff of funds prior to the deal.
