Letter regarding Davis’ immigration response, June 2018
Rep. Davis,
On June 13, more than 175 of us wrote you in support of the Help Separated Families Act and the HELP Separated Children Act, DACA protections, and asylum seekers. Your response — outlining how you and your Republican colleagues have failed to make any headway on these issues despite controlling both houses of Congress and the presidency — was disappointing.
You had nearly two months to develop H.R. 6136, a comprehensive immigration bill that you mention in your letter. The strategy behind that bill was clear from the beginning — an attempt to use these atrocious policies to press other issues of interest to your caucus.
That would be a reasonable enough strategy were we not in the thick of the moral and political crisis of our lifetime. As it stands, however, your behavior is reprenhensible.
Furthermore, you surely knew that this legislative strategy had no hope of succeeding. There was never a shared vision or goal within the Republican caucus. There was never a bill with any shot. H.R. 6136 failed by a massive margin, as did a yet more conservative version of the bill.
The bill’s only goal was to give your caucus space for sanctimonious, disingenuous posturing about compromise. It was beyond cynical from the very beginnning.
By pushing these transparently false arguments, you display nothing bad faith and contempt for your constituents. The very, very least you could do is support clean bills on these issues and allow them to move toward resolution. And yet you refuse.
You say that you care about the future of the children and families affected by these policies. And I sincerely believe that. The problem, Rep. Davis, is that you care more about any tiny political advantage you can wring from these people.
I would like a response to this letter and the particular issues addressed in it at your earliest convenience.
Bill Bell, Champaign
Original letter from Rep. Davis…
Dear Mr. Bell,
Thank you for contacting me regarding your concerns with children being separated from their families at the southern border. I appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts on this important issue.
As the father of three, I fully understand your concerns with children being separated from their families, and I myself share those concerns. While I was pleased that President Trump signed an executive order on June 20 that would temporarily end this policy, I believe a permanent, legislative solution is still needed.
For this reason, I signed a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristjen Nielsen on June 21, expressing my concerns with the future of these children and their families under current policy. We acknowledged President Trump’s executive order while also asking tough questions about the specifics of the “Zero Tolerance” policy. In fact, we laid out 8 direct questions ranging from “How many children have been separated from their parents while crossing the U.S. border in the past five years?” to asking specifics of how the President’s executive order will be interpreted an implemented in the coming weeks. You can read the full letter at the following link:
https://rodneydavis.house.gov/uploadedfiles/stivers_gop_ltr_doj_dhs_hhs_family_separation_final.pdf
Recently, I voted in support of H.R. 4760, the Securing America’s Future Act and H.R. 6136, the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act, both of which failed to pass the House. H.R. 6136 provided certainty to DACA recipients, moves us toward a merit-based immigration system, and included specific provisions preventing separation of families at the border. I was disappointed that neither of these bills passed the House as both provided us a path forward toward fixing our broken immigration system and keeping children and their families united, as well as a permanent solution for DACA recipients.
While I have continued to advocate for children and their families, as well as DACA recipients, I also support reforming our immigration system as a whole to ensure we know exactly who is coming into our country. As Chairman of the Main Street Caucus, I have talked with many other caucus members and met with many DACA groups back in the 13th district to discuss ideas and a path forward to a DACA solution. Please be assured, I will continue to work to ensure this cruel policy of separating families is stopped and I will keep your concerns in mind as the House continues to address our ongoing immigration issues.
