GOP Wastes No Time Attacking the DACA Recipients They Once Claimed to 'Love'

Before last Friday’s shutdown of the federal government, Republicans were always quick to note that they had nothing but compassion and sympathy for DACA recipients who were brought to the United States as young children.

“I’m very sympathetic with this situation,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters last February. “These are young people who were brought here at a tender age and who have grown up here or are in the process of growing up here. I’m very sympathetic to that situation and I’m anxious to see what the president decides to do.”

“We love the DREAMers,” President Donald Trump exclaimed in the Oval Office this past September. “We think the DREAMers are terrific.”

But now that congressional Democrats have shown a spine, and actually demanded action to help those “terrific” people the president claims to love so much as a condition for keeping the government open, the GOP has dropped all pretense of sympathy. Instead, the hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients they once extolled are now simply criminals whose very existence in the United States is illegal.

Just ask Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who called them “unlawful immigrants”:

Or Mitch McConnell, who said they’re “illegal” immigrants being used by “extreme elements” of the Democratic base.

Or Trump, who called them “non-citizens” whose advocates are holding congressional Democrats hostage.