Thread: Congress Might Cut Legal Immigration In Return For Amnesty

Immigration Hawks Think Congress Might Cut Legal Immigration In Return For Amnesty

ALEX PFEIFFER
White House Correspondent
7:54 PM 08/03/2017

Immigration hawks think that Democrats might support lowering legal immigration in return for a permanent amnesty for illegal aliens who arrived in the U.S. as minors, The Daily Caller has learned.

The Trump administration has put its full force behind the RAISE Act, with both President Trump and his cabinet secretaries praising the legislation. The bill, which is sponsored by Republican senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue, aims to decrease legal immigration from around 1 million annually to roughly 500,000 a year.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, wrote in National Review that a way for the RAISE Act to get 60 votes in the Senate would be for it to include amnesty for the 800,000 or so beneficiaries of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

DACA is the program started by President Obama in 2012 that protects illegal immigrants who arrived as minors from deportation and gives them work permits.

Ten Republican state attorneys general have threatened to sue the federal government if the program isn’t ended by September, and the Trump administration could refuse to defend the program much like the Obama administration did with the Defense of Marriage Act.

Krikorian went on WMAL Thursday morning and told The Daily Caller’s Vince Coglianese, “Now there is a real possibility the plug will be pulled on that program [DACA] and so the Democrats are willing to trade a stable lawful amnesty to replace Obama’s illegal measure in exchange for the bill which was introduce yesterday.”

TheDC was also told by a source in a think tank that supports reducing immigration that he suspects that a form of legislative amnesty will be passed in return for passage of the RAISE Act.

President Trump promised to immediately terminate DACA while on the campaign trail, but has yet to do so. Roughly 100,000 illegal immigrants have benefited from the program in his first few months in office.

The White House has continued to say that the program’s future is under review.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/08/03/im...n-for-amnesty/

RELATED

Introducing the RAISE Act

Will those DACA members later be able to sponsor their illegal immigrant siblings and parents for future citizenship?

Why would Mark Krikorian be writing an article that suggests this kind of a deal to pass the Raise Act??!!!

Cotton-Perdue’s RAISE Act: Can It Pass?

by MARK KRIKORIAN August 2, 2017 8:43 PM @MARKSKRIKORIAN

The political question about the immigration reform bill unveiled at the White House today is whether it has any chance of passage.

Robert’s piece on the home page (I don’t mean to pick on you, Robert, really!) takes issue with the bill’s “controversial” narrowing of the family categories and cap on refugee admissions (there’s no statutory limit now).

He writes, correctly, that “Both big businesses and many on the left are beholden to high levels of immigration, low-skill and high-, and a filibuster will require 60 votes in the Senate where Republicans have only 52.”

Overcoming that hurdled, he claims, is harder with these provisions.

But leaving the current level of overall immigration – or even doubling it to 2 million a year, as the Gang of Eight bill would have done – would still not get 60 votes.

The RAISE Act isn’t as pointless as that sounds, though. First of all, major changes in public policy often require several Congresses, and intervening elections, to come to fruition.

That’s why it’s not a left-handed compliment to call the Cotton-Perdue bill a “great start” or an “opening bid.”

But the bill actually does have a non-zero chance of passage, one that doesn’t require Lindsey Graham or Chuck Schumer to magically change their minds on immigration.

Instead, the key is DACA. Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is the lawless amnesty that Obama decreed in 2012 to goose Hispanic voter turnout, after Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed in 2010 to get the Democrat House to pass the DREAM Act.

That bill would have amnestied illegal immigrants who came before age 16. DACA, Obama’s simulacrum of the DREAM Act, is only able to provide two-year renewable work permits (plus Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses, and access to EITC).

It’s DACA’s perishable nature that is the key. While I’ve been critical of the president for not pulling the plug on DACA as he promised during the campaign, the administration has suggested they might still do so.

What’s more, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has warned that if DACA isn’t terminated by September, he’ll be adding it to his state’s lawsuit against the subsequent DAPA executive amnesty, very possibly causing it to be struck down in court.

The fear that the work permits of 800,000 illegal-alien DREAMers would be allowed to expire without renewal has prompted Senators Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin to reintroduce the DREAM Act.

On its own, the bill’s chances of passage are little better than the RAISE Act’s. But if the supporters of the DREAM Act are scared enough, they might be willing to deal.

A package that includes DREAM, RAISE, and enforcement measures to prevent future DREAMer populations from forming, might actually have a chance. I wouldn’t bet my house on it, but it’s not crazy.

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner...ct-can-it-pass

there are should not be any amnesty for illegals