Ted Cruz Moves In To Demagogue On A New Crisis: The Children At The Border

If you want to understand why there's a crisis of refugee children at the southern border, you're probably not a Republican-- and you're surely not Texas reactionary and would-be-presidente Ted Cruz. But reading about the horrific U.S. policy agenda in Guatemala is probably a good place to start. You may even come to the conclusion we actually do owe these people a little compassion. Yes, owe.

Yesterday, Greg Sargent explained to Washington Post readers why the refugee crisis is an argument for immigration reform, not an argument against it, as racist and nativist reactionaries have been howling. Alas, though, those racists and nativists utterly control the congressional Republican leadership.

Some House Dems are currently exploring whether House procedure can be used to compel one more vote on comprehensive reform, once Republicans offer their proposal to deal with the current border crisis, I’m told. In the end, Dems may not try this-- the leadership is not currently entertaining the idea. Even if they do try it, Republicans probably could squash the effort before any vote happens, but if Republicans did this, the big picture would be that they are once again refusing to legislate to solve the broader crisis the country faces, this time with the ongoing border disaster unfolding as a backdrop.

Congressional scholar Norman Ornstein outlines a route by which Dems could try to procedurally force the bigger issue. House Republicans are expected to offer a proposal that combines less funding to address the crisis than Obama wants, with some form of changes to the 2008 trafficking law, to speed up removals. Ornstein notes that any such changes to the law-- as opposed to mere appropriating in the form of giving Obama money-- could procedurally open the door to Dems offering a “motion to recommit with instructions” which would attach the House version of comprehensive immigration reform to the House GOP effort.

The dream outcome would be that such a thing somehow gets to the floor, putting a handful of vulnerable Republicans in tough districts in a tough spot and forcing the House GOP to vote down reform. But of course getting that far is an extreme long shot, because Republicans likely would procedurally kill such a move at the level of the Rules Committee or in some other fashion. But it’s still worth doing, Ornstein says: “Even if it gets killed, Democrats can frame it as, ‘Republicans had another chance to do comprehensive immigration reform, and they killed it again.’”

The basic point here is that this could offer an opening for Dems to procedurally push the envelope. “Democrats haven’t used all the weapons available to them-- this is an opportunity,” Ornstein says.

The racists and nativists don't care-- not even a little. And they're already slamming the proposal by GOP whip John Cornyn and Blue Dog Henry "Bush's favorite Democrat" Cuellar, two Texas reactionaries, for a bipartisan solution. The far right doesn't want a solution. They want collapse. Tulsa sociopath Jim Bridenstine, who voted against the Highway Trust Fund despite the crucial Arkansas River bridge projects in Tulsa, isn't the only anarchist radical more than willing to play chicken on the issue. He told the the National Review that "There are people in the House who fully believe that if the president isn’t willing to enforce current law, then why would we pass anything?"

KKK Senator Jefferson B. Sessions III is on the same page: "Congress must demand that the President use his lawful powers to begin enforcing the law now-- instead of passing legislation on the promise of future enforcement-- and that he back down from his plan to widen his disastrous DACA program, which would of course escalate the existing border disaster to unthinkable proportions." Sessions and Bridenstine are among scores of Republicans who want to round up the DREAMers and ship them back to countries many of them have no recollection of whatsoever. And, of course, out front leading that parade is Cruz.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz plans to take a hard-line stand that could rile up conservatives just as lawmakers-- including two from his home state-- are struggling to address the growing humanitarian crisis along the southern border.

The conservative firebrand believes that any bill to deal with the unaccompanied migrant children at the border must also include language to stop a 2012 immigration directive from President Barack Obama-- a proposal unlikely to go anywhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

The move is vintage Cruz: stake out a staunchly conservative position on the biggest debates in Congress, whether it’s pushing to defund Obamacare at the expense of a government shutdown or now trying to end a controversial Obama policy aimed at deferring deportation proceedings for certain undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children.

While plenty of Republicans would be happy to end the Obama directive, some think it’s unrealistic to tie it to an assistance package. And there’s no sign that the House, dominated by Republicans, is considering such a move.

Supporters of the effort say targeting the directive would resolve the root cause of the current crisis, but some fear that a fight over the directive could simply delay getting aid to the border.

“We should not lose sight of the fact that we have an urgent crisis on the southern border right now and we have to deal with that, I think, first,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.).

...Since joining the Senate in 2013, Cruz has taken combative stands against the GOP establishment for even entertaining compromises with Democrats. His outspoken opposition to immigration legislation that passed the Senate last year endeared him to tea party conservatives, but it has also put him in a difficult spot with the growing Hispanic population that could eventually turn Texas into a purple state.

As the crisis at the southern border with Mexico now intensifies, with more than 57,000 unaccompanied children apprehended at the border since October, Cruz has bashed the White House repeatedly for failing to stem the influx of immigrants. But unlike Cornyn and his state’s governor, Rick Perry, who may again run for president in 2016, Cruz-- a Cuban-American-- has yet to emerge as a prominent voice in the debate.

Yesterday, he introduced a bill to defund the program that has granted DREAMers temporary asylum in America. If it were to pass it would lead to rounding them up and deporting them-- regardless of their status as U.S. veterans or as students or graduates and regardless of how many years they've spent in the U.S. or how integrated into the community they are. And, of course, he's trying to tie it to the emergency funds Obama needs to deal with the border crisis.

Not a shred of humanity or empathy from the Party of Hatred, Greed and Bigotry. Cruz doesn't see-- has never seen, never will see-- beyond the far right Republican base that has propelled his extremist political career. He doesn't care what that appeal is going to do to the careers of Republicans in more mainstream parts of the country-- which helps explain why Cruz is the single most hated man in the Senate... by Republicans.