To the editors:
A recent story on Politico details the Senate’s ongoing failures to enact immigration reform to support the “dreamers.” For millions of our neighbors, this a crisis brought on by President Donald Trump’s threat to extinguish the DACA program within the next month. Politico tells us that Trump, Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Trump’s henchmen at the Department of Homeland Security pulled the strings to kill the bipartisan bill.
Key to the bill’s demise was Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford’s last minute rejection. Lankford made a lot of press as one of the players with his hand across the aisle that wanted a deal. In the end, he’s shown as much moral fiber as a loaf of Wonder Bread.
Trump’s rhetoric has turned into an existential threat to millions of families. This means children and teenagers could see their families torn apart, their parents and siblings deported.
A teacher at Capitol Hill High School told me that, the day after Trump was elected, her students were literally crying in fear. Consider how these draconian policies will drive the undocumented underground? Then further consider how the backlash will cause more punitive response from “law enforcement” types and create a vicious cycle — a counterproductive result for both practical and moral reasons culminating with even more misery and struggle.
Lankford kowtows to the gray ol’ men, the party cynics, and the nihilist president. He’ll continue to receive campaign donations from the Kochs, the wealthy, the corporations, the right wing PACs. But for every contribution dollar, there will thousands of tears from dreamers.
And you can bet very damn few of those children ever got to go to Falls Creek.
John Langston
Edmond, Oklahoma
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