A is for America

There wasn't much immigration legislation news this week, but unfortunately, there's always a lot going on with Donald Trump's deportation force. A New York Times story this week about Customs and Border Protection underscored the abuses of power that CBP regularly displays. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), normally a non-political agency, announced its decision to remove "nation of immigrants" from its mission statement — just the latest evidence that we're living under a white nationalist Administration. And Fox is considering making a movie about Hot Cheetos, which may turn out to be the most fascinating immigrant success story you've never heard of.

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The Senate voted on four immigration amendments this week — two of which would have created a path to citizenship for 1.8 million Dreamers and taken them out of the ongoing crisis where hundreds are losing status and work permissions every day. We talk about what this means and how Republicans cannot go on claiming that they want to help Dreamers when they have repeatedly done nothing to pass protections for immigrant youth. The ball is still in Trump and Congressional Republicans' court, and it's an election year. You can bet we'll be working to punish Republicans this fall for their complete lack of action for Dreamers.

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Immigration legislation may be coming to the Senate floor next week, but whether a bill will come up that protects immigrant youth without trying to mass-deport their parents is anyone's guess. Here's what we do know: Congress voted for a continuing resolution for the third time in eight weeks, and for the third time they did not include protections for Dreamers in the deal. March 5 is coming up, and hundreds of Dreamers are already losing status every day. How many Dreamers will have to fall out of status before enough is enough? CALL CONGRESS and tell them to take action.

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Donald Trump gave his first State of the Union address this week, and luckily, most reporters didn't try to write that Trump was "pivoting" or "softening" on immigration. As predicted, Trump gave a speech that "divides, denigrates and dehumanizes based on a worldview that some are worthy and most are not." He said that "Americans are dreamers, too" -- coded language which has already become a white nationalist rallying cry -- without acknowledging that Dreamers are Americans, too. Meanwhile, the March 5 official end of DACA continues to loom without Republicans making moves to protect Dreamers. 

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The White House released its immigration proposal this week, and advocates have been calling it a "white nationalist wish list", a "legislative burning cross", a "ransom note for Dreamers", and more. Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, and Jeff Sessions broke DACA, and now they need to fix it, or the Republican Party will own up to the fact that it wants to deport Dreamers. Trump's proposal is dead on arrival; now it's time for the Senate to pass real legislation that helps immigrant youth. Narrow gets it done. Meanwhile, John Cornyn continues to make trouble while Border Patrol agents are boarding Greyhound buses in Florida. Know your rights! 

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Are Republicans about to lead us into a government shutdown? Remember: Trump's party controls the House, Senate, and presidency. They have enough members in their caucus to pass a funding bill for the year. But because they can't get their own house in order, they have to look to Democrats for additional votes. Democrats want to keep the government open while funding CHIP, fighting against opioids, and passing the Dream Act. Republicans have offered no counter-proposals. It seems that Republicans don't have a plan — which means they should figure one out soon, because voters by an 11-point margin say they'll blame Republicans for a shutdown.

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A s---hole lot of immigration events happened this week, including Donald Trump's very racist and inflammatory remarks toward immigrants. Republicans are going to have to distance themselves from those remarks sooner or later -- it IS an election year -- and we don't want apologies. We want commitments and action on the Dream Act. DACA negotiations continue, and temporary protected status for Salvadorans was cancelled.

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It's still only the first week of 2018, but there is already so much immigration news. Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan said that we should lock up the elected leaders of cities with immigrant-friendly policies, which we think is pretty fascist. Motel 6 has been caught handing immigrant guests for the second time. The Trump Administration is preparing scary new measures for immigrants in 2018. And of course, the fight for the Dream Act goes on. It's 2018 now -- an election year -- and Democrats as well as Republicans should know that we're watching.

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Congress passed a continuing resolution last night that will fund the federal government until January 2018. Despite demands from Dreamers and advocates, the Dream Act was not included in this bill. But, that means that we'll be continuing the fight for legislation in January. We are delayed, but not defeated. Listen to what this vote means for us, what we think about members of Congress who didn't vote with Dreamers yesterday, and what's next on the horizon.

Intro by @daniellaraps

This week our special guests were Dreamers Reyna Montoya, Maxima Guerrero, and Jose Patiño, Dreamers with the #Vote4Dream campaign who have been relentlessly campaigning for the Dream Act on Capitol Hill since just after Thanksgiving. They bring stories of how members of Congress and their staff have reacted to the Dreamers' campaign, and why it's important that people call in and make it clear that this issue is important. Congress must pass some kind of funding for the government before December 22, 2017, which means that this week and next week are crucial in terms of making it clear to Congress that they must act. Call your member of Congress today!

Intro by @daniellaraps