Bipartisan lawmakers ask Trump for flexibility on DACA renewals
Bipartisan lawmakers ask Trump for flexibility on DACA renewals
By Cristina Marcos - 09/18/17 03:17 PM EDT
A bipartisan pair of lawmakers asked the Trump administration on Monday to offer some flexibility for young undocumented immigrants applying for renewed work permits.
In a letter to Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke and Acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director James McCament, Reps. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) and Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) asked for some changes to the administration’s plans for phasing out the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program over the next six months.
Upon announcing the end of DACA this month, the Trump administration said it would only consider renewal applications from recipients whose work permits expire between Sept. 5 and March 5, 2018, and have been accepted by Oct. 5. Current DACA recipients can retain their work permits and deferred deportation until they expire.
Gutiérrez and Coffman suggested that the administration allow individuals whose permits expired before Sept. 5 to apply for renewal; process renewal applications that are postmarked on or before Oct. 5; refrain from penalizing applicants with minor or technical errors; and provide two-year grants of deferred action from the date a current work permit expires instead of from the date a renewal application is approved, to ensure recipients are given the maximum amount of time to stay in the U.S.
The two lawmakers said that the proposed adjustments would “ensure that the administration’s end of the [DACA] program proceeds in an efficient and transparent manner.”
It’s not the first time Gutiérrez and Coffman have teamed up on efforts to extend protections for DACA recipients. They introduced legislation together in January, called the Bar Removal of Individuals who Dream and Grow our Economy (BRIDGE) Act, which would extend DACA protections for three years to give Congress time to enact a long-term policy.
Coffman filed a discharge petition this month to force a vote on the legislation. Discharge petitions, a rarely-successful tool typically used by the House minority party, need 218 signatures to trigger a floor vote.
So far Coffman has only four co-signers on his discharge petition, all of whom are Democrats. Gutiérrez, who is pushing for legislation more comprehensive than the BRIDGE Act’s three-year extension, is not among them.
But Coffman’s discharge petition is unlikely to go anywhere regardless. Coffman told The Hill two days after filing it that he is dropping the effort, following a conversation with House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/35...-daca-renewals