Trump’s Immigration Plans Include Doubling DACA, Path to Citizenship, $25 Billion Wall

January 25, 2018, 2:19 PM PST Updated on January 25, 2018, 4:36 PM PST




  • Proposal would double number now covered under DACA program
  • President demands money for wall, tougher enforcement


President Donald Trump will support a path to citizenship for as many as 1.8 million undocumented immigrants brought into the U.S. as children, doubling the number of people covered by current protections from deportation, White House officials said Thursday.

As part of any deal, Trump also wants Congress to provide a $25 billion trust fund to pay for a southern border wall and enhanced security at ports of entry as well as improvements along the U.S.-Canada border. He also will seek additional funds for immigration enforcement personnel and immigration judges.

The requests, detailed in what the White House is calling a “legislative framework” that is being delivered to Congress, also include limiting family-based immigration to nuclear families -- spouses and children only -- and ending the visa lottery system put into place more than two decades ago. Three White House officials previewed the framework on the condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.

The White House is asking the Senate to rely on its outline as lawmakers draft a bill to protect recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which Trump announced last year would end in early March. The administration wants Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell bring the bill to the floor the week of Feb. 6, just before current government funding runs out at the end of the day on Feb. 8.

The framework is in effect a bottom line for Trump, one official said when asked if it was negotiable.

Senate Republicans generally applauded White House on releasing the president’s framework, including hardliners like Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia. Perdue endorsed the plan in a statement that said, "We all want a good deal, and here it is."

‘Balanced Solution’

McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan thanked the president in separate statements that didn’t endorse the framework but said it will help Congress reach what Ryan spokesman Doug Andres called a "balanced solution."

"Members on both sides of the aisle will look to this framework for guidance as they work towards an agreement,” McConnell said. Representative Carlos Curbelo of Florida, an advocate for immigrants among House Republicans, said the provisions for dreamers, as the young immigrants are called, were “extremely compelling.”

But pro-immigration groups charged that the proposal would cut legal immigration in half, and their reaction was blistering. A spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi torched the plan as a $25 billion anti-immigrant wish list created by White House adviser Stephen Miller, a backer of restricting legal as well as illegal immigration. One group of young immigrants, United We Dream, called the proposal “a white supremacist ransom note.”

Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii wrote on Twitter, "There is no public policy justification for cutting legal immigration in half. None."

Ending ‘Amnesty’

The president’s willingness to sign a bill that includes a pathway to citizenship is a shift from his campaign promise to end all "amnesty" for undocumented immigrants. In a Jan. 9 meeting with lawmakers, the president said he wanted to deal with the issue with "love." The White House, eager to tighten immigration policy, is casting the proposal as a major concession intended to spur the backers of DACA recipients to agree to policy changes that they otherwise may not favor.

A White House official said Thursday that the administration anticipates the House will probably pass its own immigration bill that will have to merged with a Senate plan.

The 1.8 million people who would be eligible for a 10-to-12-year pathway to citizenship include the 690,000 people enrolled in the DACA program, plus a similar number who were eligible for the program but didn’t apply, and a small number who would become eligible because of adjustments to the calendar used to determine qualifications, an official said.

The program would set requirements for education, work and good moral character, as defined in the law for seeking U.S. citizenship. Legal status could be revoked in the event of criminal conduct, public safety or national security concerns, fraud, or if the person becomes financially dependent on the government.

DACA Recipients’ Parents

The limits on immigration preferences for family members would mean that people could no longer bring parents or other relatives.

Second-ranking Senate Democrat Dick Durbin said earlier this week that the status of DACA recipients’ parents must be addressed if family-based immigration such as sponsorship of parents is eliminated.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas earlier Thursday blasted the idea of giving young undocumented immigrants a way to become citizens, and suggested the president was betraying his voters.

“I do not believe we should be granting a path to citizenship to anybody here illegally,” Cruz said at the Capitol. “Doing so is inconsistent with the promises we made to the men and women who elected us.”

The White House proposal was harshly criticized by interest groups on both sides of the immigration issue. Michael Needham, chief executive officer of the conservative group Heritage Action, called the proposal an expansion of "amnesty" and said in a statement that it "should be a non-starter."

Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-immigration group America’s Voice, said in a statement the plan would "take dreamers hostage in order to keep out and kick out millions."

In addition to the $25 billion for border security, the White House is seeking efforts to address the flow of the drug fentanyl, something that Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota requested on Thursday.

The end of the visa lottery program would allow the government to reallocate resources toward processing the backlog of family-related and high-skilled visa requests, one official said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...to-citizenship