White House press secretary Jay Carney on Thursday denounced an amendment passed by House Republicans that would reject President Barack Obama’s policy to end deportation of DREAMers, the thousands of immigrants in the country illegally who were brought to the U.S. as children.
“As the Senate prepares to debate bipartisan commonsense immigration reform next week, House Republicans chose to spend today passing an extreme amendment to strip protections from ‘Dreamers,'” Carney said in a statement. “These are productive members of society who were brought here as young children, grew up in our communities, and became American in every way but on paper. This amendment, sponsored by Representative Steve King, runs contrary to our most deeply-held values as Americans. It asks law enforcement to treat these Dreamers the same way as they would violent criminals. It’s wrong. It’s not who we are. And it will not become law.”
