Democrats Muddy the Immigration Waters with Talk of “Clean” Bills

The Trump administration was left scrambling following Tuesday’s bipartisan meeting on immigration when President Trump seemed to sign on to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) proposal to pass “a clean [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] DACA bill now” with the promise of border security down the road.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters during her briefing that he “embraced” a clean bill “if you look at what the President’s definition of a clean DACA bill is.”

Later in the meeting, Trump himself made clear that “a clean DACA bill, to me, is a DACA bill where we take care of the 800,000 people,” he said. “We take care of them and we also take care of security. That’s very important.”

The confusion is understandable, particularly when you consider that no actual DACA bill exists.  On the other hand there is a new variation of the DREAM Act, a measure to grant amnesty to more than 2 million young illegal aliens.

For months, open-border lawmakers and special interest groups have intentionally conflated the legislative extension of DACA with the mass amnesty proposed under the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act is actually what Feinstein, a former supporter of the border fence, was referencing.

The linguistic sleight of hand is a marketing tool designed to get broad-based support for their even broader amnesty goals.

Let’s be clear. Neither the proposals offered by Democrats’ to “fix” DACA, nor the DREAM Act itself have a border security component.

DACA involves 800,000 illegal aliens who applied for work permits through the program unconstitutionally created by President Obama.

The DREAM Act, on the other hand, is a bill that has failed to gain enough support to pass for more than two decades and would grant amnesty to the DACA beneficiaries and approximately 3 million more illegal aliens.

It also would increase the federal budget deficit by $26 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

So, what “clean” means inside the marbled halls of Capitol Hill is amnesty and no border security.

Why would Democrats be pushing so hard not to protect the border? Because protecting their electoral future is paramount if a memo from longtime Democratic Party adviser is any indication.

“At that point, Latinos may not be the only constituency within the Democratic base that becomes dispirited and disengaged. If Democrats don’t try to do everything in their power to defend Dreamers, that will jeopardize Democrats’ electoral chances in 2018 and beyond. In short, the next few weeks will tell us a lot about the Democratic Party and its long-term electoral prospects,” wrote former Obama and Hillary Clinton spokesperson Jennifer Palmieri argued in January 8 memo to “interested parties.