Thread: Congress weighs one year extension for Obama/Trump DACA Program

Congress weighs leaving Dreamers in limbo another year

If lawmakers can’t reach a broader deal, they could provide temporary protections for the young undocumented immigrants.

By SEUNG MIN KIM
02/05/2018 05:15 AM EST


Demonstrators, many of them recent immigrants to the United States, protest the government shutdown and the lack of a deal on DACA outside of Federal Plaza on Jan. 22, 2018, in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images


Congress may just end up punting on its Dreamer dilemma.

As lawmakers grasp for a solution for the young undocumented immigrants, one option is a temporary extension — perhaps one year — of their legal protections paired with a little bit of cash for border security.

“That may be where we’re headed because, you know, Congress is pretty dysfunctional,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of the few to publicly acknowledge the possibility of a temporary fix.

“That’d be a real loss. But that’s probably where we’re headed, OK?”

Some senators are already deriding a yearlong patch as “misguided,” a “Plan Z” and a proposal that would keep immigrants “in fear.” But lawmakers have only until March 5 to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program under President Donald Trump’s deadline.

And in a Congress that has routinely struggled to keep the lights on, at least some lawmakers say a temporary fix for Dreamers might be all but inevitable. Lawmakers return to Washington this week with another government shutdown looming after Feb. 8 and a deal on Dreamers still far out of reach — a reality that could make a DACA stopgap increasingly appealing.

There’s ample precedent for immigration programs getting extended in fits and starts.

The EB-5 visa program, which grants wealthy foreign investors a shot at green cards if they invest a significant amount of money in domestic enterprises, has been routinely reauthorized in recent short-term funding bills.

Other, more obscure immigration programs have also been temporarily renewed. The list includes the Conrad 30 waiver for immigrant doctors in rural areas, as well as a visa for religious workers, said Leon Fresco, a veteran immigration attorney at Holland and Knight.

The DACA punt appears inevitable, Fresco said — particularly as Trump continually hints of an extension to the March 5 deadline.

Trump would be hamstrung from doing that unilaterally, Fresco argued, because his Department of Justice has said DACA, enacted under President Barack Obama, was done illegally.

“If he wants to do this extension, the only way to do the extension is to ask Congress to do it on his behalf,” said Fresco, a former DOJ official under Obama and immigration aide to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “I think both sides would call it a day … knowing that this could be revisited later.”

Lawmakers are starting to run out of time, even though the early March deadline may not be firm after a federal court ordered the administration to accept DACA renewals again. While all DACA recipients are allowed to renew their permits, it still takes months to process the applications — meaning beneficiaries whose protections expire in the weeks after March 5 could temporarily be left vulnerable to deportations.

On Friday, Trump sounded downcast on the prospects of an immigration deal and attempted to pin the blame on congressional Democrats — although it was Trump who triggered the dilemma in the first place by announcing last fall that he would end Obama’s directive.

"We wanna make a deal,” Trump said during a tour of a Customs and Border Protection training center. “I think they want to use it for political purposes, for elections. I really am not happy with the way it's going, from the standpoint of the Democrats."

Apart from Graham, most senators and aides are loath to entertain the prospect that Congress would punt in the ongoing immigration talks.

“I think that that’s misguided,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said. “I think that’s a lazy way out of fixing a problem that we’re on the brink of being able to fix.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he’s heard the chatter about a one-year DACA fix, but he stressed that doing so “will not be ideal.”

“To be back here a year from now, doing this again … that would be like Plan Z,” Rubio said. “Everybody, across the board, is prepared to do something, you know, that gets permanency to elements of this issue.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has hosted a growing group of senators trying to hammer out a backup immigration plan, said Dreamers deserve to be assured of a more permanent future than one sketched out in yearlong increments.

“I’m a little concerned that if it’s a very short-term fix that they’re still living in fear of what’s gonna happen, rather than knowing that they can live in this country and work towards becoming a citizen, assuming they have a good record,” Collins said. “So that does not appeal to me because we’ll be back in the same debate a year from now.”

The punting proposal also has other challenges.

Democrats could throw up objections to the idea, considering they’re achieving a mere temporary extension for DACA recipients yet are conceding funding for something they see as permanent, such as a border wall.

And a bare-bones Dreamers bill would be likely to face resistance in the House, where conservative Republicans are already complaining that even the White House framework — which calls for sharp restrictions to the family-based immigration system — is too generous to young undocumented immigrants.

Lawmakers may soon have no choice, however.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) has discussed how a temporary DACA fix could be accompanied by equally short-term measures. Likewise, a more permanent solution, such as a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, would allow for more expansive changes in border security and legal immigration.

“I’d be disappointed in that outcome,” Cornyn said last week of a one-year punt. “I’m still holding out hope for a bill along the lines of the president’s outline.”

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/...gration-387026

Leave them in limbo until you deport every single one of them. Americans do not want DACA, DACA Deals or DACA Amnesty of any kind. That's a fact. Do Your Jobs and represent the best interest of American Citizens which means enforcing US immigration law and deporting every illegal alien out of the United States. That is your job. Period.

DACA IS ILLEGAL

Let work permits expire and ENFORCE our existing laws.

Stop kicking this can down the road giving illegal aliens a "free pass" to stay and break our laws...whether a BILL may, or not be passed!

So we allow criminals to go free for YEARS on the premise a BILL or Law will be changed in 6 months or 6 years from now to protect them? HELL NO!

DEPORT EVERY SINGLE ILLEGAL ALIEN UNDER AND VISA OVERSTAY UNDER OUR CURRENT LAWS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY

NO MORE DETENTION AT THE BORDER...BOOT THEM OUT IN 24 HOURS!

Any vote for any DACA Amnesty bill will get any Republican lawmaker kicked out of office!

Our new ALIPAC polls shows us more than 67% of the GOP Primary voters who helped elect these 300 Republicans in DC oppose DACA Dreamer Amnesty!

New Poll Shows GOP base voters reject Plans to give Amnesty to DACA illegals 2 to 1
(The Art of Stopping the DACA Amnesty Deal)
https://www.alipac.us/f8/new-poll-sh...-2-1-a-355381/


ALIPAC activists, please post this poll on lots of articles you see here on the topic of Amnesty.

Why would the Republicans even consider a one year extension. Doing so would give the Democrats a tool to galvanize their base during the 2018 elections. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I don't think Politico is a good source of information about what Republicans are really up to. I don't believe for a second Republicans in the House are going to pass an amnesty for any illegal alien. Trump needs to shut up about DACA, stop poking the bear, and go repeal Obamacare in its entirety, tell Congress to pass the repeal of McCarran-Ferguson at least for health insurance and make the individual tax cuts permanent. I wouldn't even waste time on infrastructure and border security discussions this year, I'd wait until next year. I'd pass what I could through budget reconciliation and not worry about anything else until 2019 except winning the midterms and 10 more Senate seats.

I'd spend the rest of the year making sure every American knew that Republicans and Trump can't fix everything that needs to be fixed without a 60 vote majority in the US Senate as well as a strong majority in the House. I would spend every waking moment driving that point home to every household in the United States.

I didn't read the article, but what does that mean to leave them in limbo for another year? The way I interpret that is that they are going to legalize them for one more year until they can hammer out a permanent solution to give them full blown citizenship. I don't like this one bit. We are getting the wool pulled over our eyes. We are getting screwed.

Originally Posted by 6 Million Dollar Man

I didn't read the article, but what does that mean to leave them in limbo for another year? The way I interpret that is that they are going to legalize them for one more year until they can hammer out a permanent solution to give them full blown citizenship. I don't like this one bit. We are getting the wool pulled over our eyes. We are getting screwed.

No, they're in limbo because of no DACA fix. They start losing their work permits in March, so many a day fall out due to expired permits with no renewals. The lawsuit will extend that briefly until the US Supreme Court rules and hopefully ends this stupid shit once and for all. Politico is a DemoQuack on-line newspaper that has chosen a headline to grab clicks. No one is doing anything to extend it or pull the wool over anyone, it's just what it is, an expiring program. No more DACA, no more deferred status, just plain ole illegal aliens without work permits otherwise known as "the law" not "limbo".

We are getting the wool pulled over our eyes.

How did 800k (notably NOT VERIFIED AUTHENTIC) turn into 1.8 million with trump? Is he for real! The others are???????

It really seems this figure is presented in authenticity as to make "a deal". USA is not NYC - spell out the deal trump! Who exactly comprises the 1.8 million if only 800k with actually uncertified authenticity are DACA???????????Who are the extra tack-ons for your trump deal????

Congress has at least five options to address illegal alien DREAMers