Jeff Flake: GOP Leadership Promised DACA Amnesty if I Vote for Tax Bill

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has revealed that he’s been promised an amnesty for nearly 800,000 illegal aliens by the Senate Republican leadership so long as he votes in favor of a year-end tax reform bill.

In a statement, Flake — a longtime advocate for mass immigration and amnesty — said he was originally going to vote against the tax reform plan, but was promised by GOP leadership that if he voted in favor of the bill, he would be backed later on by leadership with a plan to give amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who have been shielded from deportation by the President Obama-created Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The Washington Post noted:

Almost simultaneously, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a prominent holdout, announced his support for the legislation. He said he had secured leadership backing for two priorities: one related to how businesses can deduct major investments like equipment purchases; and the second involving a solution for immigrants brought wihtout authorization to the United States as children.

“Having secured both of those objectives, I am pleased to announce I will vote in support of the tax reform bill,” Flake said in a statement.

In another statement, Flake not only said that he got a commitment by the GOP leadership to support a DACA amnesty, but also that the “solution” would be “growth-oriented” which loosely refers to more legal immigration and more imported foreign workers for big business.

From the outset of the current debate on tax reform, my goal has been to ensure that Congress passes a tax reform package that is both fiscally-responsible and promotes economic growth. During the debate over the current bill, I’ve focused on two specific objectives. The first was to eliminate the $85 billion expensing budget gimmick in the bill. The second was to obtain a firm commitment from the Senate Leadership and the administration to work with me on a growth-oriented legislative solution to enact fair and permanent protections for DACA recipients. [Emphasis added]

Flake’s statement would mean the passage of the tax legislation is actually serving as an assurance to the Republican establishment, Democrats, the open borders lobby and corporate interests that an amnesty for DACA illegal aliens will happen, no matter the amount of opposition to it by President Trump’s base and the American people.

Earlier in the week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and corporate interests gathered in Washington, D.C. with illegal aliens to lobby lawmakers to support an amnesty for DACA recipients.

The open borders efforts, though, have not pushed the White House to move from the Trump administration’s stance that any deal on DACA would have to include the President’s pro-American immigration principles in order for it to be considered.