Volunteer villain: How Ted Cruz’s hard-line immigration stance helps Democrats

[DonViejo]

Ted Cruz becomes the face of anti-immigrant sentiment at the precise moment Democrats needed a political foil

SIMON MALOY

At some point the Democrats might want to consider sending Ted Cruz a nice fruit basket. Or perhaps a Chick-fil-A gift card. At the very least they owe him a thank-you note.

The party has been tripped up politically by the border crisis, and an issue that was once a sure-fire winner for Democrats – immigration – now has various factions within the party arguing over what to do with the tens of thousands of Central American children coming into the U.S. The Republicans were content to simply sit back and offer a light poke every now and again to keep the intra-party fighting alive. But now Ted Cruz has emerged to work his special brand of politics and make himself a lightning rod for a hard-line immigration position that is supported by conservatives, but is unpopular with everyone else.

Politico reported last night that Cruz will push to undo President Obama’s 2012 executive action to defer deportations for younger immigrants as part of any legislative fix for the border crisis. “Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said the senator’s ‘top priority’ is to end the deferred action program,” according to Politico, “noting that he is drafting a legislative proposal to prohibit the White House from broadening the policy.”

This is bonkers, both from a policy and a political standpoint. Policy-wise, Obama’s 2012 executive action has nothing to do with the current influx of immigrant minors. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program exempted from deportation immigrants who were brought into the country as children and have been in the U.S. since June 2007. Anyone arriving to the country now is not eligible, no matter their age. Undoing the program would have absolutely no impact on the current crisis.

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http://www.salon.com/2014/07/17/volunteer_immigration_villain_how_ted_cruzs_hard_line_immigration_stance_helps_democrats/

[Midnight Writer]

1. You would think Ted would have some sympathy

for these refugees, considering his father was granted political refugee status from Cuba.