To the shouts of "Si, se puede!" House Democrats voted Tuesday to hand out an unconditional amnesty to more than 2 million illegal immigrants known as DREAMers, along with two other categories of illegal migrants, sending a message abroad that the border's open and path to the citizenship comes free. That's some message to send during an ongoing border surge.

The Democratic-led chamber passed the Dream and Promise Act in a largely party line 237-187 vote, with seven Republicans joining all Democrats in voting for the bill.

Supporters in the gallery broke out into cheers of "Sí se puede!" when the tally reached the necessary simple majority of 218 in favor.

"That was good," said Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), walking off the House floor.

The bill would grant permanent residency with a path to citizenship to more than 2 million immigrants across three categories: It would permanently protect from deportation Dreamers – immigrants who came to the country illegally as children – as well as certain recipients of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) programs.

The illegal immigrants who ballot-harvested California's congressional delegation into the House must be 'si se puede-ing' themselves something fierce. Mission accomplished.

And as for Democrats, well, their game is just politics. They know the measure isn't going to pass in the Senate, and certainly won't get signed in the White House. But for them, that's not a problem, because it's less about providing relief to DREAMers than it is about incentiving more illegal immigration as a means to gaining more political power. Democrats, remember, kind of like having a lot of people here illegally who can't quite vote and who are always dependent on them. They lead the pack in "dead districts" in places with something like 9% voter turnout in California, and they benefit from new congressional seats created from those same districts padded with illegals, as well as the additional electoral college votes they provide. No wonder they want more of them.

Their standalone measure does nothing to couple the incentivization with more immigration enforcement, yet won't help DREAMers so much as it will be employed as a pressure tactic, (with Democrats' media handmaidens putting out more individual sob stories to influence public opinion) for the 2020 election, and maybe as a means of getting their end of any comprehensive bargain with the GOP through as a unit.

Take a look at which states may be affected most. This 2010 chart from the middle-of-the-road Migration Policy Institute (I marked swing states in yellow) suggests that it is a bid to affect swing state votes:

Incredibly, they even admit it's just political:

Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) Chairman Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said that even without a Senate vote, the bill will serve a political purpose as Democrats push back on immigration moves by the Trump administration. "I mean, the Senate is tough. But we're going to do everything we can to push them to move on it. And even if they don't move on it immediately, it holds it in place for larger negotiations for comprehensive immigration reform," Castro said. "At worst, this is a ready-made piece for further negotiation on a larger immigration package," he added.

The real problem is that this vote incentivizes illegal immigration at a time when the border is already surging with uneducated, unskilled "families" seeking asylum they are unlikely to qualify for. More than 109,000 illegal, unvetted migrants were apprehended in just April and more than a million illegal entrants are expected this year. Migrants are now showing up with kids who may or may not belong to them, and those kids not only serve as entry tickets for a stretch in the U.S. without vetting or detention, they also form a convenient backstop for a path to citizenship for the whole family if the asylum claims don't go through, via the DREAM act. Once a single member gains the citizenship path, chain migration permits all of them to get the benefit.

Think it will incentivize a few more to make it here before the wall that Democrats are blocking goes up? Well, when the reward for breaking the law is greater than the reward for following it, it's very likely. That's even as the law only officially applies to about a fifth of the nation's already-here illegals. It's amnesty, and with every amnesty, there's a firm sense that there will eventually be another amnesty, because it's only a matter of time before newer entrants are grandfathered in. What we are seeing here is a disgraceful bid to play politics at a time when there's a national emergency at the border and Democrats are blocking a wall.

Now, citizenship is up for being handed out like candy to lawbreakers, even as Democrats are still complaining about illegals being transported to their sanctuary cities. Does this bid to block President Trump by inviting more illegals in have less idiocy? Not with these guys.

Image credit: Screen shot from Migration Policy Institute