Trump offers deal for ‘Dreamers,’ but wants to gut legal immigration
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration presented a much awaited immigration plan Thursday that would allow 1.8 million young immigrants brought to the country illegally by their parents a chance at citizenship, but which would also dramatically gut the legal immigration system.
The plan, first discussed a day before by President Donald Trump in speaking with reporters, would protect not only those who had received protections under an Obama-era deferred action program, known as DACA, but hundreds of thousands more who never got to apply or failed to renew their status when it expired.
But — perhaps most significantly — the plan would also overhaul a key principle of American immigration policy aimed at keeping families together.
As additional bits of the plan began to leak out Thursday, Democrats and advocates geared up to fight any effort to reduce current policies that reunite family members abroad with those already here in the United States.
One immigration group estimated it would cut legal immigration levels by 50 percent.
Frank Sharry, executive director of America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group, said the administration included a pathway to citizenship to be the “sugar” on top of an otherwise largely conservative proposal he fears includes the largest cuts to legal immigration since the 1920s.
“This is not 50-50. This is not 60-40. This is 9010,” he said. “They think they can exploit the desperation of ‘Dreamers’ to enact most of their legislation.”
Senior administration officials promoted Trump’s plan as a “serious immigration reform bill” that included “dramatic concessions” by the White House.
“This truly represents a bipartisan compromise position,” a senior administration official said. “We have no doubt that this legislation outlined in the framework if brought to the floor, as Mr. McConnell said he would do, would easy(ily) garner 60 votes,” said the senior administration official.
The officials said they hoped the Senate would take up debate on the proposal as part of a bill the week of Feb. 5.
On Wednesday, the administration indicated it would provide a pathway to citizenship for only the 690,000 so-called “Dreamers” who had been protected by the Obama-era program. It seemed overnight the administration expanded the program to 1.8 million including those who would have been eligible for the program, but weren’t able to apply or couldn’t renew.
A White House official said nothing changed overnight, but that they were not able to provide reporters the full details of the plan on Wednesday.