You can either support Democrats or immigrants -- not both

Ruben Navarrette Jr. on Jun 6, 2018

Today, Sinema is a member of Congress running for U.S. Senate. If she makes it, will the Democrat see Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- a Republican -- as her new boss?

In 2012, Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the TRUST Act, a bill from the state legislature that would have severely limited the ability of local and state police officers to cooperate with federal immigration agents. Brown said that he was preserving the "discretion" of local officials who wanted to work with federal immigration authorities. Oddly, Brown is today at war with local jurisdictions that insist on maintaining that same discretion.

In 2014, while signing autographs with her husband along a rope line in Iowa, Hillary Clinton was confronted by Dreamers who demanded to know if she would, as president, correct some of the abuses committed by the Obama administration through its deportation juggernaut. She beat a hasty retreat, and the encounter landed on YouTube.

Also in 2014, as thousands of unaccompanied minors from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador flooded across the U.S.-Mexico border, Clinton declared that the refugees "should be sent back" to send "a clear message: Just because your child gets across the border, that doesn't mean the child gets to stay." After criticism, she later softened the message.

The evidence keeps piling up. You can support the Democratic Party, or you can support immigrants and refugees. But these days, you can't support both.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.