Will Rubio Turn Out To Be The Most Cowardly, Servile And Craven Member Of The Senate?

You might not realize it from DWT posts, but I've been slow to shake off the denials that set in about the existential dangers of a Pepe The Frog Regime here in America. Every now and then something hits my consciousness and moves me towards reality. Sunday morning Marco Rubio's ugly countenance was on Meet the Press urging Pepe to deny DACA renewals to students. (God, if only Schumer hadn't guaranteed the little shit reelection by installing the one politician even worse than Rubio as the party nominee!) But I had been prepared for Rubio's nastiness a couple days before when a friend told me about a letter University of California administrators were sending to DACA students studying abroad urging them to return home before Pepe is sworn in and offering to reimburse all costs. I started crying over my chopped salad at the thought of it. Is this really happening already?

And then I read a San Jose Mercury News report that it isn't just the University of California concerned about their students being targeted by Pepe's fascist regime. "College administrators nationwide are urging undocumented immigrant students studying abroad to come home before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January,"wrote Tatiana Sanchez. Does that send a chill down your spine? I hope it stiffens it too. I'm afraid we're going to need people with stiff spines in the coming months and years-- more so than in any time since I was born... and I'm old.

If Trump makes good on his promise to cancel DACA, a controversial program that gives thousands of young, undocumented immigrants temporary relief from deportation, students abroad could be barred from re-entering the country, the administrators say.

In a letter sent to each of its 23 campuses, the California State University’s Office of the Chancellor has advised administrators to tell DACA recipients currently studying abroad to return to the U.S. before the new president’s inauguration. “It is highly likely that as of Jan. 20, DACA students who are abroad will not be allowed to re-enter the U.S,” the letter said.

The letter, which an academic adviser at San Jose State shared with about 2,000 students, also advises DACA students who were planning to study internationally next year to think twice, according to university spokeswoman Pat Harris.

Harris said the school isn’t aware of any DACA students studying abroad or planning to do so next year, but the university wants “students to know the reality of federal law.”

The University of California’s Office of the President said advisers at its nine campuses are working with students participating in its Education Abroad Program to make sure they are aware of the implications of leaving the U.S. The program will waive withdrawal fees for DACA students who cancel plans to study abroad, said spokeswoman Claire Doan.

Santa Clara University also has warned DACA students studying abroad to get home before Jan. 20.

Established in 2012 under an executive action by President Barack Obama administration, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has given temporary deportation relief to young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Nearly a third of the 742,000 so-called Dreamers live in California.

Since the program’s inception, an estimated 1.3 million undocumented young people have received deferred action, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. That includes an estimated 526,000 who have received approved renewals. DACA recipients can travel internationally under a system known as “advance parole,” an application submitted to USCIS that allows them to travel outside the country and return lawfully.

If the incoming Trump administration cancels DACA, students would essentially be on an advance parole that no longer exists, according to Lynette Parker, an immigration law expert and associate clinical professor of law at the Santa Clara University School of Law.

“We want to make sure that students are aware of the risks,” she said. “We want to be on the cautious side and want to make sure that we’re warning persons that we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

More than 200 college and university presidents have signed a statement calling on Trump to continue and expand DACA, including leaders at UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, Santa Clara University, the University of San Francisco and the University of the Pacific.

“We are prepared to meet with you to present our case. This is both a moral imperative and a national necessity. America needs talent-- and these students, who have been raised and educated in the United States, are already part of our national community,” said the statement, organized by Pomona College President David Oxtoby. “They represent what is best about America, and as scholars and leaders they are essential to the future.”

One more note on Rubio: you may not have noticed that when editorialists and reporters draw up lists of senators who might have the backbone to stand up to Trumpism one name never on anyone's list is the deceitful, slimy former male prostitute from Miami, who used to get drunk and blow old men in Coconut Grove for $20.