By Felicia J. Persaud
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. May 22, 2015: Insanity is defined as “extreme foolishness” or “irrationality” as well as “idiocy, stupidity or lunacy.” These are just some synonyms that can be used to define the actions of House Republicans whose candidates are in the fight for the White House come 2016.
It must be “idiocy, stupidity or lunacy” that has again made House Republicans vote on an immigration measure that would have actually given their candidates something to shout about regarding their commitment to this issue.
It has to be “extreme foolishness” and “irrationality” that would allow a Party that desperately needs to win any immigrant vote in order to have even a hair’s breath chance of winning in 2016 to vote down another measure to help undocumented immigrants.
Late last week, the Republican House voted to block a measure introduced by Republican Rep. Jeff Dunham of California that would have allowed the Pentagon to consider allowing young immigrants, who are in the country without status but who were given temporary legal status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program started by President Obama, to enlist in the military.
The dismissal of the measure came even though the plan had already won bipartisan support in the House Armed Services Committee where several Republicans joined Democrats to add it to a big defense spending package.
But the insane House Republican majority would have no such thing.
No sir! They howled and screamed that this was nothing but a back-door “amnesty” – their favorite word.
Screw the need for them as a Party to desperately endear themselves to immigrant voters. Who cares?
Certainly not Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), who led the effort to strip the measure from the defense bill.
Not sure when last Brooks looked at the make-up of the Army, but he used the good old boys argument in making his case for this, insisting that every immigrant allowed to enlist would take away a military spot from a U.S. citizen or lawful immigrant.
“This Congress should support and represent Americans by voting to stop military service opportunities from being taken from struggling American families in order to give them to illegal aliens,” Brooks said.
Yet U.S. Army Veteran Cory Harris, of Arizona, in a statement, slammed the moved as a “wasted opportunity.”
Even the Veterans for Immigration Reform saw the wisdom in this and had urged the House to approve the amendment.
As the wise Veterans noted, more than 65,000 immigrants, including 30,000 permanent lawful residents, are now part of active military duty as of 2013, which equates to 5 percent of the force.
Take that Congressman Brooks. What you and your cohorts have again proven is that you are completely anti-immigrant. This has nothing to do with undocumented immigrants but simply your own bias.
Now get ready GOP to stay out of the White House for the next 100 years. Your House members have just put the final nail in your coffin.
The writer is CMO of Hard Beat Communications, which owns the brands News Americas Now, CaribPR Wire and Invest Caribbean Now.
