Thread: Homeland Security secretary suggests amnesty for Dreamers, implores Congress to solve

Homeland Security secretary suggests amnesty for Dreamers, implores Congress to solve problem


“You’ve got to solve this problem,” Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly told the House Homeland Security Committee when members prodded him not to deport Dreamers. (Associated Press) more >

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Sunday, June 11, 2017

The Trump administration last week floated an amnesty idea for potentially 1 million illegal immigrants, looking to find permanent solutions for some of the most sympathetic cases in the long-running immigration debate.
In two days of testimony to Congress, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly said he doubts his ability to oust some 250,000 immigrants from Central American countries who have been in the U.S. for nearly two decades on a temporary humanitarian relief program.
He also signaled that he would keep protecting 780,000 Dreamers from deportation and hoped Congress would grant them permanent status.
“You’ve got to solve this problem,” Mr. Kelly told the House Homeland Security Committee when members prodded him not to deport Dreamers.
He said he would not deport Dreamers but warned that the policy could change when someone else takes over his job, making the only solution congressional action. He said there is clear bipartisan support for some form of permanent legalization and urged lawmakers to take the opportunity that the Trump administration is giving.
“I’m not going to let the Congress off the hook. You’ve got to solve it,” he said.

If lawmakers wait, he warned, a future secretary might take a stricter line on Dreamers and fully cancel President Obama’s 2012 amnesty, known in governmentspeak as DACA.
Under DACA, illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children and who have kept a relatively clean record, were 30 or younger as of 2012 and who have worked toward a high school diploma are granted a renewable stay of deportation, along with a work permit entitling them to hold jobs, get a driver’s license and obtain some taxpayer benefits.
Mr. Kelly also took a humanitarian view toward perhaps 250,000 migrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua who have been protected from deportation for nearly two decades under temporary protected status, a program designed to make sure people don’t have to go back home to countries suffering natural disasters.
The earthquakes and hurricanes that granted the protected status are well in the past, but the Bush and Obama administrations renewed the program.
All told, people from some 10 countries are covered by temporary protected status. Mr. Kelly recently renewed Haiti’s designation, stemming from the 2010 earthquake.
The secretary said he would try to encourage the Haitians to go back eventually. For the Central Americans, however, “it’s kind of hard” to root them out and send them back.
He suggested instead that Congress grant them “a way toward citizenship.”
The suggestions are splitting advocacy groups, some of which say they are willing to look at proposals as long as the deal is fair while others insist there is no room for negotiation.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports stricter limits on immigration, said the key is what kind of deal can be struck.
“Those are the two groups of illegals who have been provisionally amnestied, but not permanently so. Turning those provisional amnesties into a permanent one in exchange for some kind of significant enforcement measures could make sense,” he said.
He floated the idea of coupling a permanent amnesty for the roughly 1 million Dreamers and longtime temporary protected status recipients with an end to the Diversity Visa lottery, which gives away 55,000 immigration slots a year by random chance, and by imposing a mandatory requirement for all businesses to use E-Verify, the government’s work-authorization system, to make sure their potential hires are legal.
“If I were a congressman, yeah, I’d probably vote for that,” Mr. Krikorian said.
The Diversity Lottery has some supporters but for the most part is viewed as an out-of-date anachronism in the immigration system — another program that allows immigrants to choose the U.S. rather than Americans to choose immigrants who meet the country’s needs.
Meanwhile, E-Verify has long been on the wish list for enforcement advocates, who believe that if businesses are forced to vet their employees, then the jobs magnet for illegal immigrants would dry up.
Cesar Vargas, a Dreamer and advocate for immigrant rights, said he would be open to hearing about a deal for Dreamers and didn’t rule out E-Verify, but he added that supporters would have to prove it would be workable and wouldn’t pose a major burden on small businesses.
Still, he said the immigration debate has been stalled for so long that he wants to see concrete proposals on the table.
“Start holding hearings, start holding discussions on those significant issues,” he urged Washington.
But Greisa Martinez, an advocacy director at United We Dream and another Dreamer, said Republicans have put their enforcement measures into this year’s spending bill, which allocated money for more Border Patrol agents and deportation officers, as well as for several dozen miles of border barrier.
She said there is no deal if Republicans demand more.
“We will not negotiate on something that would add on enforcement to something that they’ve been already been able to achieve,” she said.
Matt O’Brien, a former immigration official who is now with the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said he fears Republicans who run Washington would leap at a deal that would grant a permanent amnesty to Dreamers — though he said it would come with political peril.
“FAIR’s position has always been that we want to see the border secured and the rule of law enforced. Trump made a campaign promise that he was going to repeal DACA, and that’s a promise I think he should keep if he wants to retain the support of those who put him in office,” Mr. O’Brien said.
The danger in an amnesty has always been the message it would send to potential migrants. The 1986 amnesty, far from solving the problem, paved the path for the current illegal immigrant population, which is estimated at 11 million.
The Trump administration has made some headway in tamping down the flow of border jumpers, but illegal immigration appears to have shifted instead to migrants who come legally on temporary visas but don’t leave when their time expires.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...eamer-amnesty/

The PERMANENT solution is to cut off ALL freebies and make them self deport.

NO AMNESTY, NO PATH TO STAY...STOP LYING TO US AND DEPORT THEM ALL.

WE DO NOT WANT THEM, DO NOT WANT TO PAY FOR THEM...GET THEM OUT OF HERE.

Kelly needs to shut up trying to impress Congress DemoQuacks. Trying to impress them or get them to like you or be nice to you is pure folly. Come on. Stop this wussy, pansy crap. You tell them, they are illegal aliens and under US immigration law, they have one option, and one option only, and that is deportation, and rightly so.

HELL NO! Trump promised to end this sham, it's time to live up to it.

The Trump administration has made some headway in tamping down the flow of border jumpers, but illegal immigration appears to have shifted instead to migrants who come legally on temporary visas but don’t leave when their time expires.

That's been happening for years. It didn't "shift" under the Trump Administration. Trump is going to deport all those illegal aliens here on expired visas. Pew reported years and years ago that 45% of all illegal aliens in the US are people who over-stayed their visas. And that's an easy one to solve, no deportation hearing, automatic deportation for immigration document violators.

It's too bad Trump didn't pick someone aligned with his campaign promises. Kelly's too soft. There's still DAPA hanging around and apparently it's inhumane to remove people here under TPS. Nobody other than the "bad" ones are going to be deported under this guy. Sad!

Well, just remember, Trump said "management" when asked by a reporter during the campaign "how do you intend to deport 11 million illegal aliens". He also said, we don't know how many there are, there may as many as 30 million. Lets hope they "expire" DACA and then "manage" the removals. Trump doesn't want them here, he wants them out, out, out, all of them families intact and deported as single units. But we don't have enough resources unless state and local enforcement gets on board to help US enforce US immigration law.

I don't understand how any honest law enforcement agency wouldn't want to enforce our immigration laws, unless they're on the take with the cartels. That's the only explanation that sticks to the wall. All this "community policing" crap and "we need them to report crimes" bull is just that, all bull crap and stinks to high heaven.

The only people this helps are democrats, illegal aliens themselves, all of the groups constantly demonstrating, those who call the American people names, those opposed to secure borders, those who want to use us, to kill us and take our tax dollars. It emboldens groups using refugees and illegal aliens for there own means.


This is not an America First agenda which would rightly put American citizens before foreign citizens. Secretary Kelly is such a disappointment. Following his lead there will only be a small number of the up to 30 million illegal aliens leaving.

The America people constantly hear about those brought here through no fault of their own. It is through no fault of the American people that our lawmakers and leaders have failed us for decades. Our lives, our jobs, our families should be the priority. Make families who came illegally accept their actions and remind them of all they took and take from our nation and from its citizens. The remittances in the hundreds of billions that have left the United States over three decades could have done so much.

President Trump is a disappointment too on allowing DACA to continue and for allowing citizenship for illegal aliens through the program.

124,799 Dreamers allowed to stay, the size of Hartford, Conn.

By Paul Bedard

June 12, 2017



The Trump administration has decided to let over 120,000 younger illegal immigrants considered so-called "Dreamers" to stay in the country, keeping in place the controversial Obama-era program.


The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency just reported that 124,799 "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" cases were approved from January to the end of March.

The agency broke those figures down to 107,524 renewals and 17,275 initial applications.

That is the size of the population of Hartford, Conn.

By comparison, that is fewer than Obama OK'd in his last three months in office.



http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/12...rticle/2625659

Originally Posted by GeorgiaPeach

The only people this helps are democrats, illegal aliens themselves, all of the groups constantly demonstrating, those who call the American people names, those opposed to secure borders, those who want to use us, to kill us and take our tax dollars. It emboldens groups using refugees and illegal aliens for there own means.


This is not an America First agenda which would rightly put American citizens before foreign citizens. Secretary Kelly is such a disappointment. Following his lead there will only be a small number of the up to 30 million illegal aliens leaving.

The America people constantly hear about those brought here through no fault of their own. It is through no fault of the American people that our lawmakers and leaders have failed us for decades. Our lives, our jobs, our families should be the priority. Make families who came illegally accept their actions and remind them of all they took and take from our nation and from its citizens. The remittances in the hundreds of billions that have left the United States over three decades could have done so much.

President Trump is a disappointment too on allowing DACA to continue and for allowing citizenship for illegal aliens through the program.

Well said!