Schumer Aims to Keep the Promise that Never Was While Breaking Every Promise He Ever Made
In an op-ed published on CNN.com, The Senate and House Minority Leaders, Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offer a passionate plea for passage of the DREAM Act amnesty. Predictably, the op-ed highlights the poster boy and poster girl DACA beneficiaries in order to create the impression in readers’ minds that they are typical of all illegal aliens who arrived in this country as minors. They also make special note of the $1.2 billion current DACA beneficiaries are paying in taxes, hoping that no one will notice that it amounts to about 1/40th of 1 percent of the federal budget.But even less honest is Schumer and Pelosi’s assertions that “we made a promise to these young people and we asked them to trust us with their information and their livelihood.” We promised them nothing. When President Obama created DACA, a program that he repeatedly denied he had the constitutional authority to implement, he made it crystal clear that this was a temporary program that might not outlive his administration. The only promise he made was that ICE would not enforce the law against this subset of illegal aliens while he was in office. He is not in office any more.You can’t break a promise that was never made. You can break promises that were made, and when it comes to breaking immigration promise there is no one more accomplished than Chuck Schumer.Schumer was one of the House leaders on the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act which promised the American people future immigration enforcement in exchange for amnesty for some 3 million illegal aliens at the time, including border security and an effective method of preventing illegal aliens from gaining employment in the U.S. Promises made, promises broken.Schumer was in the Senate in 1996 when Congress passed legislation prohibiting sanctuary policies and barring states from offering in-state tuition benefits to illegal aliens (like the two poster children in the op-ed are receiving) unless they offer the same subsidies to out-of-state American citizens. The bill outlawed sanctuary jurisdictions, like the ones fiercely maintained in his and Pelosi’s home states. More promises made, more promises broken.Schumer was still in the Senate, moving up the leadership ranks, in 2006 when he, along with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden, voted for construction of secure fencing along the Southern border. As minority leader, he is threatening a budget impasse that would shut down the federal government in order to prevent that fence from being constructed. Another promise made, another promise broken.However, despite his demonstrable lack of credibility, we can take Schumer at his word that he will do everything in his power to gain full amnesty for as many illegal aliens as possible. Promise never made, promise kept.