“Dreamers are Americans!” At least, that’s what the left has been screaming through their progressive bullhorn since 2012. The L.A. Times, USA Today, Huffington Post, and Time Magazine have all run headlines at one point or another left-splaining to us that dreamers are Americans. Well, the dreamers have never been more American than they were this week when the Democratic Party screwed them over in favor of less-deserving, hypothetical future immigrants. Gotta admit, being screwed over by Democrats is as American as Apple Pie, G.I. Joe, and Mount Rushmore rolled into one. Forget baseball — being betrayed by Democrats is our real the national pastime!
Last week, President Trump offered a way-too-generous compromise on immigration that would provide a jaw-dropping 1.8 million dreamers with a path to citizenship in exchange for a $25 billion border security appropriation, an eventual end to chain migration (after everyone on the 17 year waiting list has been considered), and an end to the completely asinine Visa lottery system.
The president’s proposal was a non-starter for Democrats. Basically, they’re characterizing his plan as a racial slur wrapped up in a Nazi flag and delivered to Congress by the Tiki-torchers. Democrats are officially willing to sacrifice a path to citizenship for the 1.8 million dreamers in exchange for more hypothetical, future immigrants. Say what you want about Lindsey Graham (I always do), but the man can name names of the dreamers who will be helped by Trump’s plan. I challenge the Democrats to name the name of one single person Trump’s plan will hurt. Name one name, and I will switch sides today!
But they can’t. There are no names.
Democrats have spent months waxing histrionic for the dreamers. Rep. Keith Ellison compared dreamers to Jews in Nazi Germany. Now, he and the rest of the Democrats are taking a hard pass on helping those dreamers—people with names, as they like to say — because they’re hopelessly devoted to our two dumbest immigration laws. So, to disguise their betrayal of the dreamers they supposedly support, Democrats have decided to smear President Trump’s immigration proposal as a super, double-Hitler, white-Supremacist nightmare. It’s a Nazi Baskin-Robbins with 31 flavors of evil! Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer rejected the proposal, calling it, “The wish list that anti-immigration hard-liners have advocated for years.”
Uh-huh. That must be why all the anti-immigration hardliners are dancing in the streets singing “We are the Champions” at the top of their lungs. Mark Krikorian, executive director at the Center for Immigration Studies and an actual activist for hardline immigration policies, was so excited about President Trump’s proposal that he encouraged his Twitter followers to burn their MAGA hats and tweet pictures. The folks at Breitbart were so excited that they dubbed the president “Amnesty Don.”
According to the left-wing hyperbole machine, Trump’s proposal is a “legislative burning cross” and a “white supremacist wishlist.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called it a plan to “make America white again.” These unhinged talking points might impress the basest of the base of the Democratic party, but they show an ignorant and warped understanding of what Americans actually think. They’re about as chock-full of Earth-logic as the alien on Futurama who wonders, “Why does Ross, the largest ‘Friend,’ not simply eat the other five?”
Sorry, Democrats, but Americans don’t find President Trump’s proposal racist at all. According to the new Harvard-Harris poll, 65% of Americans support Trump’s immigration proposal including 62 percent of whites, 68 percent of Hispanics, and 64 percent of blacks. So, using Nancy Pelosi logic, Hispanics are the voting bloc most racist toward… Hispanics?
The poll also shows its support has an extremely bipartisan breakdown. 64 percent of Republicans favor it, 64 percent of Democrats favor it, and 67 percent of independents favor it. Of course, the pollster didn’t call it “Trump’s proposal.” The numbers would be way lower if they did.
The question was worded like this: “Would you favor or oppose a congressional deal that gives undocumented immigrants brought here by their parents work permits and a path to citizenship in exchange for increasing merit preference over preference for relatives, eliminating the diversity visa lottery, and funding barrier security on the U.S.-Mexico border?”
That’s the exact plan that was offered up by the White House.
What will Democrats do on February 8 when the continuing resolution expires? They already received a public opinion wedgie for shutting down the government for 700,000 DACA recipients—and those are the immigrants Americans sympathize with the most. Are Democrats seriously going to toss a path to citizenship in the dumpster behind the Capitol building and shut down the government to save hypothetical someday immigrants?
February 8 will be a Title Bout, The Dreamers vs. The Hypotheticals. If the hypotheticals win, the 1.8 really will become #TrumpDreamers.
Eddie Zipperer is a political science professor at Georgia Military College.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
