Millions of immigrants, including 800,000 DACA recipients (“Dreamers,” undocumented immigrants brought here as children), were betrayed and dealt a very serious blow today when the Democrats caved in to the Republicans and voted to reopen the government.
Already last Friday, top Democrat Senator Schumer, in trying to make a deal with Trump, agreed to link the fate of Dreamers (threatened with deportation because of Trump’s cancellation of DACA) to support for Trump’s border wall. This was conceding that Trump’s wall, and all the associated “security measures”—that is, viciously repressive anti-immigrant actions—are valid, without getting anything in return. (See “Government Shutdown: Democrats Collaborate… Shithole Trump Fascists Roll Over Them Anyway”)
Now, Schumer and the Senate Democrats have given away the one tool they had—forcing a federal government shutdown—by capitulating to the fascist Trump/Pence regime and the Republican-controlled Congress. On Monday, January 22, they voted to approve virtually the same bill to fund the government for three weeks that they’d rejected a few days ago in a hollow, duplicitous show of support for DACA. The House approved the funding bill, and Trump signed it, so the government was fully “back in business” on Tuesday, Jan. 23.
And what did the Democrats get in return for this betrayal? A promise from the lying, double-dealing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he will put DACA up for debate and a vote between now and February 8. This is the same Mitch McConnell who has already stabbed fellow Republican senators Jeff Flake and Susan Collins in the back when he promised to back a healthcare bill they supported if they voted for the Trump/Pence tax bill, and then did nothing.
Even if McConnell does allow a bill granting legal status to DACA recipients onto the Senate floor for debate and a vote, it could be tied to all manner of further harsh attacks on immigrants. And if such bill isn’t loaded with such poison—perhaps even if it is—the House would be almost certain to vote it down. Meanwhile, the Trump/Pence White House is already claiming victory and declaring its intention to fight for its full fascist anti-immigrant agenda, including ending the visa lottery, ending Temporary Protective Status (TPS) programs for more groups of immigrants (Trump has already done that for TPS recipients from Haiti, El Salvador, and Nicaragua), ending “chain migration” (an ugly term used by the fascists to refer to the legal practice of family reunification of immigrants), and stepping up deportations and raids. The Trump/Pence regime may offer some small concession for a portion of the DACA-eligible people—OR they may very well not even do that.
At that point, what would the Democrats do? They’d be even less able to shut down the government again in protest, because they’ve already ceded so much ground. In fact, Trump could well say to them: You already agreed to the wall and other measures, so why not just vote in the whole package, and maybe we’ll do something about DACA later.
All of this is further proof that when it comes to driving out the Trump/Pence FASCIST regime, the Democratic Party is part of the problem and NOT part of the solution.
And it underscores the reality, deeply analyzed and exposed in Bob Avakian’s most recent talk—THE TRUMP/PENCE REGIME MUST GO! In the Name of Humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America, A Better World IS Possible”—that nothing good can or will come out of working within the system’s political framework or by accepting and bowing down to current “political realities.” Only the actions of millions, acting independently in sustained, determined, and massive non-violent political protest demanding this whole regime be gone, can shift the whole political landscape and drive this fascist regime from power.
Make no mistake. The fate of the Dreamers and millions of other immigrants is hanging by a thread. The battle to win legal status for Dreamers and to protect ALL immigrants, and to stop Trump’s Nazi-like assault on immigrants, is a key part of stopping this monstrous fascist regime from carrying out ever greater, unimaginable crimes against humanity and the planet. This makes standing with immigrants all the more urgent now. As Revcom.us wrote, “All of those who are NOT immigrants must stand shoulder to shoulder with these courageous immigrants, pour into the streets and find every other possible way to actively refuse and stand up against this fascist regime’s advancing assault on immigrants.”
The point now, clearly, is this: cast away illusions, prepare for struggle!
