Senator McCain Is Repeating a 1986 Mistake on Immigration

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan worked with Congress to pass the Immigration Reform and Control Act. This bill, sold to Reagan and the public as a crackdown on illegal immigration, was a trade-off much like what seems to be materializing in Washington right now. In exchange for the legalization of roughly 3 million unauthorized immigrants, the border would be secured and illegal crossings curbed. Predictably, the Democratic Congress completed the amnesty but never secured the border.

Reagan and the American public were sold-out by Democrats who had no intention of securing the nation’s borders, but only used the issue as an enticement.

We face a nearly-identical situation right now, and it is as if Senator John McCain doesn’t care about history. Democrats recently shut-down the government over DACA, and are still refusing the Republicans’ offer of DACA legislation that includes border security measures and an end to chain migration. With another funding deadline looming Friday, Democrats are, again, demanding legal status for over 2 million Dreamers without border security measures included.

Luckily for the Left, Senator McCain is teaming-up with Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware to pass DACA without security measures, but with a promise to study available options in the future. Unfortunately for the American people, this deal is even worse at the outset than in 1986. The predicable result of such legislation will be legalization followed by no border security. This will result in another wave of unaccompanied minors showing up on our border, which will create a humanitarian crisis and a law enforcement nightmare.

Instead of capitulating to Democrat demands on DACA without border security, while holding the federal budget hostage, Republicans should just suspend the filibuster rule in the Senate to overcome this fiscally reckless game of chicken Democrats are playing over illegal immigration. American voters didn’t give the GOP a majority at all levels of government just so that John McCain could team -up with Chris Coons and make a bigger mistake than the immigration reform bill in 1986 that did nothing to end illegal immigration.

Immigration policy has nothing to do with the budget, so Republicans should stop allowing it to be used as a weapon to slow completion of a true two-year budget for the United States Government.

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