Sen. Cornyn offers a deal: protect “Dreamers” in exchange for harsh immigration curbs
Sen. Cornyn offers a deal: protect “Dreamers” in exchange for harsh immigration curbs
By Bill Lambrecht, Washington Bureau
December 5, 2017 Updated: December 5, 2017 6:56pm
Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, STF / Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Texas Sen. John Cornyn and GOP colleagues Tuesday offered a set of aggressive immigration curbs in return for signing on to protections by year’s end for some 800,000 young undocumented immigrants subject to deportation in three months.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Will Hurd joined 33 other Republican House members pressing Speaker Paul Ryan to swiftly find a solution to the precarious status of the young people subject to deportation in March because of President Donald Trump’s order ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA).
Hurd of San Antonio is part of a House GOP working group assigned to come up with a solution.
As urgency surrounding the plight of the young immigrants grows, more than 1,000 activists are expected for a rally today on Capitol Hill, among a host of events in Texas and across the country this week demanding that Congress take up the issue before scheduled adjournment Dec. 22.
So-called Dreamers and their advocates believe that a solution must be reached this year — well before the deadline — because the task would grow even more challenging in 2018, an election year with greater tendency toward political posturing.
This month, immigrant supporters could have greater leverage with consequential matters on the front-burner and Democrats across Capitol Hill threatening to withhold support on must-pass legislation that doesn’t address the status of people brought to this country illegally as children.
Thus far, three months after Trump ordered DACA rescinded, the political parties on Capitol Hill remain locked in a high-stakes game of brinksmanship.
The massive new legislation offered by Cornyn and four other Republicans — 524 pages long — makes concessions by including elements of the so-called Bridge Act, which enables a “provisional protected presence” and work authorization if certain conditions are met.
It also draws heavily from earlier Cornyn proposals calling for a multilayered tactical plan with fencing, levees, technology or other physical barriers rather than extending the border wall.
But Republicans’ bargaining offer also includes controversial efforts to stem so-called “chain migration” by limiting the capacity to sponsor relatives for immigration, along with an array of controversial measures that have the effect of making it harder for new arrivals.
Their “Secure Act” also takes aim at so-called sanctuary cities and increases penalties for immigration violations.
Cornyn said he stands ready to work with Democrats as long as the final product includes what he referred to as pillars, among them stepped up immigration away from the border and expansion of E-Verify, an online system for employers to document the immigration status of new hires.
“I hope they’ll come back to the table and respond to this proposal,” Cornyn said on the Senate floor. “I hope they’ll also quit threatening to shut down the government, which won’t solve the problem but indeed will make it worse.”
A debate this week between Cornyn and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the chief sponsor of Dream Act legislation to protect young undocumented immigrants, has grown increasingly pointed.
Durbin has said he’s encouraging Democrats to oppose funding legislation needed this month to avoid a partial government shutdown.
“How can we in good conscience pass a spending bill giving authority and resources to this administration to go out and arrest and deport these young people and not address the underlying issue of their legality in the future of the United States,” Durbin said to colleagues Monday night.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tried to soften that approach Tuesday by asserting that Democrats weren’t prepared to withhold votes on the sensitive issue of funding government operations.
Durbin said Tuesday he doesn't consider the Cornyn legislation “a good-faith effort to provide protection for the Dreamers. … The laundry list of unrelated immigration bills which they have offered is designed to delay and stop any serious bipartisan effort to solve this crisis created by the Trump administration” on Sept. 5.
Immigration advocates, too, were quick to condemn the legislation.
“Their proposal is a witch’s brew of nativist poison pills topped by a stingy, temporary three-year reprieve for those with DACA,” said Frank Sharry of America’s Voice, an alliance of immigrant advocacy groups. “This is the (Trump adviser) Stephen Miller wish list that amounts to the entire hard-right, mass-deportation agenda.”
A sponsor, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., pointed to concerns among some senators about protections Democrats demand, sentiments suggesting difficult bargaining ahead.
“It creates a whole new category of Americans who could get legal status for their extended families, including the very parents who brought them here in violation of our laws,” he said.
For U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, the Senate plan is not sufficiently far-reaching, an indication it could meet with resistance from House hardliners if it becomes the vehicle for solving the Dreamer problem.
Smith said he’s pleased about the potential limiting effects of prioritizing the immediate family of U.S. residents as potential new arrivals and applauded provisions to speed implementation of a biometric entry-exit program to track visa over-stayers.
But Smith said he can’t support the legislation because of what he considers overly broad DACA-related wording and omission of a more strict E-Verify system, something he has championed, “missing an important opportunity to save jobs for American workers.”
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