Graham, Durbin revive bill to help 'Dreamers'
Graham, Durbin revive bill to help 'Dreamers'
07/19/17 04:20 PM EDT
http://thehill.com/sites/default/fil...?itok=ifNCsN-W
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) plan on Thursday to introduce a new version of a bill granting legal status and a path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children.
The proposal comes as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides temporary relief from deportation to those immigrants, who are known as "Dreamers," faces a legal challenge from Texas and nine other states.
The Trump administration has not said whether it will defend DACA in court.
Supporters of the program are wary of leaving its defense in the hands of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who consistently took a hardline stance on immigration measures in the Senate.
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short said at an off-camera briefing Wednesday that the administration is unlikely to support the new bill.
"The administration has opposed the Dream Act and we are likely to be consistent in that," he said.
President Trump extended DACA in June, but has vacillated on the issue of Dreamers — the DACA recipients who received that monicker after the original Dream Act.
“It’s a decision that I make and it’s a decision that’s very, very hard to make. I really understand the situation now. I understand the situation very well. What I’d like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan. But our country and political forces are not ready yet,” Trump said last week.
A White House official speaking on background said Trump "campaigned on enforcement first, and that is where his focus is."
The official added that the White House is "working with Congress on a number of key pieces of legislation, including with [House Judiciary Committee] Chairman [Bob] Goodlatte [R-Va.] on a series of enforcement measures as well as with Sens. [Tom] Cotton [R-Ark.] and [David] Perdue [R-Ga.] on merit-based reforms to the legal immigration system."
The bipartisan bill is likely to receive some support from Democrats and moderate Republicans pushing to provide a permanent legislative solution before any legal challenge against DACA takes effect.
Many members on both sides of the aisle are on record in support of making DACA benefits permanent, and have supported previous iterations of the Dream Act dating back to 2001.
In their bill, Graham and Durbin — the top Democratic sponsor of most earlier versions of the Senate bill — will set guidelines for qualification, similar to DACA and earlier Dream Act guidelines.
Under the 2017 Dream Act, immigrants would qualify for permanent residence and a path to citizenship if they are longtime residents who came to the United States as children; earn a high school diploma or GED; pursue higher education, have lawful employment for three years or serve in the military; pass a background check and pay a fee; show proficiency in English and U.S. history; and have not committed a felony nor posed a threat to the country.
Earlier versions of the bill and the DACA program had similar guidelines, but in most cases had cut-off dates for final entry, making only certain childhood immigrants eligible for benefits.
The original Dream Act also established different conditions for childhood arrivals to gain temporary residence or permanent residence.
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3...-help-dreamers
‘Enforcement First’: White House Unlikely To Support Senate Bill For ‘Dreamers’
Posted By Will Racke On 10:37 AM 07/20/2017
The Trump administration is not likely to throw its support behind a Senate plan to revive an amnesty bill for illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, administration officials said Wednesday.
A White House official told McClatchy that President Donald Trump would not sign an updated version of the Dream Act, a bipartisan proposal to codify the legal status of people currently eligible for protection under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
“It’s enforcement first. Then we can get to all these other things,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin Of Illinois are set to introduce Thursday the 2017 DREAM Act, which would give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship if they came to the U.S. as children. Various versions of a bill to grant amnesty to such illegal immigrants — commonly known as “Dreamers” — have been proposed going back to former President George W. Bush’s first term, but Congress has never been able to work out a compromise.
The new Dream Act proposal comes as the DACA program’s future looks increasingly uncertain. In late June, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with counterparts from nine other states, threatened to sue the Trump administration unless it rescinds DACA by Sept. 5.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly subsequently told Congress that the administration won’t commit to defending DACA in court, based on guidance from department lawyers that the program is unlikely to survive a legal challenge from the states. (RELATED: Will Sessions’s DOJ Defend DACA? He Previously Doubted Its Constitutionality)
“Most of them felt that DACA, as it exists, is not legally sustainable,” DHS spokesman David Lapan said earlier in July.
Trump has sent mixed signals on his intentions for DACA recipients. During the campaign, he trashed DACA as an illegal executive amnesty by President Barack Obama, but he has muted that criticism since taking office.
DHS granted an extension of DACA in June, and Trump suggested in mid-July that he would be open to an immigration reform bill that includes some kind of permanent legal status for Dreamers.
“It’s a decision that I make and it’s a decision that’s very, very hard to make,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “I really understand the situation now. I understand the situation very well. What I’d like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan.”
The president added, however, that “our country and political forces are not ready” for such reform. For now, the administration appears to be content with a piecemeal approach to immigration policy, backing a pair of enforcement bills and a Republican proposal to reduce legal immigration levels.
“The administration has opposed the Dream Act and we are likely to be consistent in that,” Marc Short, the White House legislative director, said Wednesday.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/20/en...-for-dreamers/
