Voted to support Trump-inspired amicus brief against DACA & DAPA
Today, in a rare, historic vote to send an amicus brief on behalf of the House of Representatives to the Supreme Court against President Obama’s immigration actions, Congressman Coffman voted to tear apart hardworking immigrant families. The clearly political, Trump-inspired sentiment behind the vote is made all the more outrageous by the fact that Coffman cast his vote without even having the text of the amicus brief.
“Congressman Mike Coffman just voted to tear innocent children away from their families and take us further towards Donald Trump’s nativism, bigotry, and Constitution trampling,” said DCCC Spokesman Tyler Law.
Today’s vote concerns President Obama’s immigration orders: an extension to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) for eligible children who had been brought to the United States through no fault of their own, and the new Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), which shields eligible immigrant parents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents from deportation and grants them with temporary work permits. It is estimated that unfreezing DAPA and expanded DACA would result in tens of billions of dollars in economic growth.
Throughout his career, Coffman has come under fire for his out-of-touch positions – a fact that was reflected this year in an op-ed by State Representative Joe Salazar called: “Mike Coffman paved the way for anti-Immigrant Donald Trump.” Last cycle, State Senator Jesse Ulibarri took Coffman to task, writing a piece for the Denver Post about why “Mike Coffman is no friend to immigrants.” More recently, a story in The Colorado Independent outlined why “Latino Dems blame Mike Coffman for Trump’s rise.”
Unfortunately, attacks on immigrant families are nothing new for Coffman:
- Coffman and some of his Republican colleagues led the charge on ending birthright citizenship.
- Coffman even said that the DREAM Act would be a “nightmare” for Americans
- Coffman called immigration hardliner Tom Tancredo his “hero” and praised his efforts to kill the Republican immigration bill in 2010.
- Coffman fought for English only ballots, saying that minority language voters should “pull out a dictionary.”