"Is the only immigration bill we’re going to have one that hurts children?"
by digby
It's pretty hard for me to believe that this wasn't the obvious position from the get but better late than never:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — a key bloc on immigration issues — came together Wednesday to oppose the idea. The growing opposition among Democrats will make it more difficult for the GOP-led House and the Democratic-run Senate to reach an accord before Congress leaves Aug. 1 for its annual summer break.
Members of the Hispanic caucus personally conveyed their opposition to changing current deportation policy during a closed-door White House meeting with Obama on Wednesday.
“We had an emotional meeting, but emotional in the sense that we were connected,” Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) told reporters afterward. “We asked him to be our champion, we asked him to be a hero to our community, and he responded to us as a champion and as a hero, in my opinion.”
During the meeting Obama told the group that he wanted “to find a way to ensure due process but also speed things up” in the processing of young migrants, according to another lawmaker in the room who asked not to be identified in order to frankly describe the president’s opinions.
Pelosi told the New York Times in an interview Wednesday that using Obama’s request for more money to change how the federal government deals with young migrants would be “exactly the wrong way to go.” She added, “Is the only immigration bill we’re going to have one that hurts children?”
I suppose it was inevitable that so many leading Democrats' first instinct was to shriek that the children had to be sent back to their parents --- many of them have been conditioned over many years to react defensively whenever the right wing gets hysterical. I was depressed when Hillary Clinton, a person known for her entire career as an advocate for children , so harshly assessed the situation and demanded that these kids be sent back with dire warnings that they would not be allowed to stay. I don't know if her position has changed now but at least we're seeing a shift among the Democrats in congress and the president seems to be on board.
Frankly, I don't even want to talk about the politics of this because it makes me sick to think that these kids are being used as pawns. But if Democrats don't have a heart at least that ought to have a brain. The politics are on their side.
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