Thread: Flake to try to force vote on DACA stopgap plan

Flake to try to force vote on DACA stopgap plan

BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 02/20/18 12:18 PM EST 145

© Greg Nash

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) will try to force a vote on a plan to extend protections for a group of young immigrants known as "Dreamers" as soon as next week.

Flake's plan would pair a three-year extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program with $7.6 billion in border security.

"In the days following the introduction of this DACA extension, I’ll be on the floor to offer a unanimous-consent request for an up-or-down vote. I can’t promise that one of my colleagues won’t object ... but I promise that I’ll be back on the floor, again and again, motioning for a vote until the Senate passes a bill providing relief to those struggling," Flake wrote in a Washington Post op-ed on Tuesday

Under the Senate's rules, he will need every senator to agree to schedule action on the stopgap immigration bill. Any senator could object and block Flake from setting up a vote on his plan.

Flake's maneuvering comes after the Senate rejected multiple immigration proposals last week, including the White House's proposed framework and a compromise from a key group of centrists.

The setback has left DACA recipients in limbo with no clear path toward an immigration bill that could pass Congress. DACA, an Obama-era program, allows certain immigrants brought into the country illegally as children to work and go to school.

Flake added that his forthcoming bill is "far from a perfect solution" but would provide a "temporary fix."

"After what we’ve experienced over these past weeks, I can’t see this Congress agreeing with this president on a package that includes a path to citizenship for DACA participants coupled with significant changes to our legal immigration structure. That comprehensive immigration reform has proved to be beyond our grasp," he wrote.

Some GOP senators are pointing to an end-of-March government funding bill as a possible vehicle for a DACA compromise, while House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) says he wants his chamber to address the issue next month.

GOP Sens. John Thune (S.D.), Rob Portman (Ohio) and Jerry Moran (Kan.) are pitching a separate backup measure that would provide legal protections for current DACA recipients and a $25 billion border security trust fund.

But that measure will likely face an uphill path to winning over Democrats because it doesn't include a path to citizenship and would only cover roughly 700,000 immigrants compared to the 1.8 million at the center of the Senate's competing plans.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-actio...e-on-daca-plan

Congress has failed on DACA. Here’s what must happen now.




February 20, 2018

By Jeff Flake

Jeff Flake, a Republican from Arizona, is a member of the U.S. Senate.

Having spent the better part of two decades trying to tackle the challenges we face as a country, I sometimes feel a little defensive when I hear someone say Congress is incapable of solving big problems.


But that’s a hard point to argue after watching the Senate squander its best opportunity to pass legislation both to protect young immigrants affected by the uncertain future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and to strengthen security along the border.


Somehow, despite sweeping public support for both these items, we could not find a compromise that 60 senators could agree with. To say it was a disappointment would be an understatement.


Cornyn, Flake react to Trump’s citizenship proposal for some ‘dreamers'
(VIDEO at Link)


Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.) react to President Trump’s suggestion that some “dreamers” be given a pathway to citizenship. (Jordan Frasier/The Washington Post)


I do appreciate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s attempt to facilitate an open debate to deliver an effective piece of bipartisan legislation. Senators on both sides of the aisle made a concerted effort to forge consensus. Unfortunately, the siren call of politics brought too many of us back into partisan trenches and blocked any hope of real results.

But there are teachers, students and members of the military who are DACA recipients. They are friends and colleagues who represent the very best of America — hard workers and productive members of their families and communities — and they do not have the luxury of accepting defeat and moving on to the next agenda item.


Likewise, those of us from border states know that law enforcement officers tasked with patrolling the border and protecting our neighborhoods cannot just give up and go home.


But if I’m being candid, after what we’ve experienced over these past weeks, I can’t see this Congress agreeing with this president on a package that includes a path to citizenship for DACA participants coupled with significant changes to our legal immigration structure. That comprehensive immigration reform has proved to be beyond our grasp.


That is why, when the Senate reconvenes next week, the first action I will take will be to introduce a bill extending DACA protections for three years and providing $7.6 billion to fully fund the first three years of the administration’s border-security proposal. I’ll be the first to admit this “three for three” approach is far from a perfect solution, but it would provide a temporary fix by beginning the process of improving border security and ensuring DACA recipients will not face potential deportation.


Congress has become entirely too comfortable ignoring problems when they seem too difficult to solve. This issue is not something we can ignore.


In the days following the introduction of this DACA extension, I’ll be on the floor to offer a unanimous-consent request for an up-or-down vote. I can’t promise that one of my colleagues won’t object — effectively blocking such a vote — but I promise that I’ll be back on the floor, again and again, motioning for a vote until the Senate passes a bill providing relief to those struggling.


We may not have been able to deliver a permanent solution to these problems, but we cannot abdicate the responsibility of Congress to solve them. There are too many people with too much at stake.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/opini...=.1a3a0e32cb3c

BOOT DAPA OUT

BOOT DACA OUT

BOOT ILLEGALS, TPS AND ASYLUM LIARS OUT

BOOT ANCHOR BABIES OUT...THEY ARE HERE FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD...GET THEM OUT!

THE GRAVY TRAIN IS OVER!!!

In the days following the introduction of this DACA extension, I’ll be on the floor to offer a unanimous-consent request for an up-or-down vote. I can’t promise that one of my colleagues won’t object — effectively blocking such a vote — but I promise that I’ll be back on the floor, again and again, motioning for a vote until the Senate passes a bill providing relief to those struggling.

You phony two-faced globalist hypocrite. The people struggling who need our help are the over 75 million Americans on Medicaid, not illegal aliens who aren't supposed to be in our country to begin with. You are a menace to our country.

So if I understand correctly, it will take only one Senator to object... which we can probably count on Ted Cruz to do that, then it would have to go under normal order and clear a sixty vote cloture motion again to pass?

Can't the clown circus that is our U.S. Senate take no for an answer. It's time to quit attempting to cover for past illegality and get back to the job of taking care of the peoples business.

They don't and won't give up. Illegal alien amnesty or bust.