DCCC targets GOP lawmakers for immigration vote

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is going on the
attack against Republicans who recently voted to restart deportation of undocumented immigrants who came to the country before their 16th birthday.

The group is launching radio ads against nine House Republicans, most
from Latino-heavy districts. Democrats have pointed to the vote as
evidence that Republicans have no real interest in fixing immigration or
making inroads with Hispanic voters.

{mosads}The targets: Republican Reps. Mike Coffman (Colo.), Blake Farenthold (Texas), John Kline (Minn.), Joe Heck (Nev.), Buck McKeon (Calif.), Gary Miller (Calif.), Erik Paulsen (Minn.), Steve Pearce (N.M.), and Frank Wolf (Va.).

“The Republican party insists that they have changed, but once again,
House Republicans like Gary Miller have betrayed our community,
rejecting President Obama’s executive order that ended the deportation
of DREAM Act-eligible young people,” the Spanish language ad’s narrator says in the
version targeting Miller. “What’s more, Congressman Miller wants to
restart the deportations of 800,000 young people who grew up in this
country, worked hard and are just looking for their chance to achieve
the American Dream. Now, instead of celebrating the first anniversary of
the deferred action program, our young DREAMers again face an uncertain
future.”

House Republicans passed a bill that would end an Obama executive
order that halted deportations for immigrants who came into the country as
children and who met certain other criteria. Giving those immigrants a
pathway to citizenship is a major part of the comprehensive immigration
bill the Senate is debating this week.

“It’s disappointing but not surprising that Democrats would use an important issue like this to score political points and divide Americans,” said Daniel Scarpinato, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “While everyone agrees we need a workable solution to this issue, Republicans don’t believe federal bureaucrats should be able to unilaterally determine which laws should be enforced, and which should not.”

Immigration remains a thorny issue for Republicans, who have major
internal divisions on the topic. Democrats are hopeful that they can use
the issue to drive Hispanic turnout in the midterm election.

This article was corrected for inaccuracy at 10:55 p.m. and updated on June 11.