Last week, President Donald Trump challenged Congress to come up with a solution to the United States having thousands of children of undocumented immigrants here learning, growing, and becoming Americans (as if they aren’t already).
As seen, it’s generated a firestorm of vitriol across the spectrum.
Honestly, it’s not a cut-and-dry issue.
On the one hand, you do have incredibly wonderful, talented and hardworking people becoming contributing members of our great country. On the other hand, a law has been broken.
Which leads me to Senator Mark Warner (D-Va.).
It would seem that Senator Warner disagrees with the president that anything should have been done to dismiss the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program; however, he does recognize that it is the role of Congress to legislate.
Late Friday, Warner blasted Trump, saying that reversing the Obama executive order does not “show heart.”
Warner added:
“The DACA program was a promise to protect certain children of undocumented immigrants, who came to this country through no fault of their own, so they could safely come out of the shadows, attain legal status and realize their full potential. Over the years, the DREAMers have shown us their true character—working hard to become this nation’s next generation of students, entrepreneurs, and military men and women. And while Congress has a responsibility to enact comprehensive immigration reform that provides them with a fair path to citizenship, which the Senate passed in 2013, we cannot let the Trump Administration’s disgraceful anti-immigrant policies leave nearly 800,000 DREAMers in limbo. Going back on our word threatens their safety, harms our economy and speaks volumes about who we are as a country.”
I asked Rachel Cohen, Warner’s press secretary to clarify and she wrote:
“Senator Warner supports the DREAM Act, which would grant permanent legal status to those young people who were brought here as children by their parents, as long as they pass security checks and meet other criteria, including enrolling in college, joining the military or finding employment.
There is also related legislation, the BRIDGE Act, which would codify into law the Obama-era policy.”
So, at the end of the day, Warner realizes that broken laws (not laws that have been broken) must be made whole by the legislature. The Senate passed the DREAM act, it was not passed at that time by the House, then Obama then took out his “pen” – which broke more than our immigration system – it broke our system of government.
In this instance, the ball really now is in the court of House Republicans. It’s time to be realistic and actually pass a law that supports the American dream – regardless of how people got here.