Grothman Weighs In On DACA

9/15/17 – Congressman Glenn Grothman is taking a firm stance on DACA. The Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals program is the subject of debate on Capitol Hill after President Trump announced that he would suspend the program in six months and encouraged federal legislators to take action. In a conversation with Grothman yesterday that will air this afternoon on WBEV’s Community Comment, the Republican from Glenbeulah told us that we should treat immigrants the way Americans are treated abroad. He notes that the “dreamers” are here illegally and there are many young Americans abroad who have no problem going back to America when their stay is over. Grothman cites kids whose parents were missionaries, business people or in the military who may go to school abroad but come back home to the US. “It’s not the end of the world,” Grothman says, “if people who are growing up [in the US] because their parents have put them here that they would not have to be American citizens.”

Grothman says there are certain things he would want to consider before striking any deal on DACA, including birthright citizenship.  He says the US Constitution should be changed to prohibit the children born on American soil to illegal immigrants from becoming US citizens. Grothman says when our forefathers put together the Constitution they certainly did not mean that the United States would be the only country in the world that grants citizenship simply for being born on US soil. He says even if they do something with DACA he is “sure it will not be across the board” because first we have to remove people who are committing crimes. Grothman says he is “not thrilled to go down this path but if we do” he says we should not say their children get to be citizens just because they were in the United States any more than an American citizen saying their children born abroad are now Italian or Japanese. “That would be ridiculous,” he says.

Our interview with Grothman will be aired on WBEV’s Community Comment this afternoon around 1:30pm, following our conversation with Republican State Representative Mark Born of Beaver Dam who will join us live to discuss the Assembly’s recent passage of the state budget and the incentives package for Foxconn. Grothman is holding a Town Meeting at the Watermark in Beaver Dam on Sunday at 6pm.