Trump will demand RAISE Act & Interior Enforcement in exchange for DACA amnesty
THIS ISSUE:
Media reports indicate that the White House will demand RAISE & Interior Enforcement in exchange for DACA amnesty
FRI, OCT 6th
The White House will demand that Congress pair the RAISE Act and parts of the Davis-Oliver Act with any bill that provides a more permanent amnesty to the illegal aliens who qualified for DACA, according to multiple reports issued over the last 24 hours.
This is the second time that details of the White House's immigration principles have leaked since press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that they were preparing the list for Congress several weeks ago. In both cases, the reports mentioned the RAISE Act and increased interior enforcement.
The recent stories also confirm statements made by the RAISE Act's author, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), following a dinner with Pres. Trump earlier this week.
Sen. Cotton said that the president wanted any deal to be limited to only the DACA recipients and he wanted it paired with an end to chain migration, increased border security, and enhanced interior enforcement.
Before Congress can consider any amnesty, it must address chain migration and its multiplying affects on amnesty. A recent report from the Center for Immigration Studies found that the average green card holder sponsored nearly 3.5 family members for green cards. Other studies put that number at more than 4 family members.
Our Capitol Hill team has prepared a chart comparing the various proposals to "fix" DACA and their impacts on chain migration. View the chart here.
Congress must also prevent future illegal immigration before debating an amnesty by requiring all businesses to use E-Verify to turn off the jobs magnet.
The House Judiciary Committee was scheduled to take the first step in passing Rep. Lamar Smith's (R-Texas) Legal Workforce Act that would require all employers to use E-Verify, but the hearing was postponed. The E-Verify markup was paired with a mark up of Rep. Bob Goodlatte's (R-Va.) Ag reform bill, but the Goodlatte bill reportedly didn't have enough votes to pass, causing postponement. NumbersUSA sent out a scoring notice in advance of the markup, alerting Committee Members that we'd be scoring against the vote. (You can read more on the details of the bill here.)
Details of the leaked White House principles have already come under fire from a member of the Senate GOP Leadership. Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said that cutting legal immigration levels through the RAISE Act deserve a larger debate and shouldn't delay an attempt by Congress to pass a DACA amnesty.
We've already sent an action alert to our activists in Texas, but you can help by Tweeting at Sen. Cornyn.
