Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Senate to take up immigratio­n negotiatio­n

- ALAN FRAM

WASHINGTON — The Senate will open up a rare, open-ended debate on immigratio­n and the fate of the “Dreamer” immigrants today.

But President Donald Trump is a crucial and, at times, complicati­ng player. His day-to-day turnabouts on the issues have confounded Democrats and Republican­s and led some to urge the White House to minimize his role in the debate for fear he’ll say something that undermines the effort.

Yet his support is likely to be vital. No Senate deal is likely to see the light of day in the more conservati­ve House without the president’s blessing and promise to sell a compromise to his base.

Trump, thus far, has balked on that front.

“The Tuesday Trump versus the Thursday Trump, after the base gets to him,” is how Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a proponent of compromise, described the president and the effect conservati­ve voters and his hard-right advisers have on him. “I don’t know how far he’ll go, but I do think he’d like to fix it.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., scheduled an initial procedural vote for this evening to commence debate. It is expected to succeed easily, and then the Senate will spend days or weeks — no one knows how long — sorting through proposals.

Democrats and some Republican­s say they want to help the Dreamers, young immigrants who have lived in the U.S. illegally since they were children and have only temporaril­y been protected from deportatio­n by a President Barack Obama-era program. The term “Dreamer” is based on the never-passed DREAM Act, which would have given protection­s similar to those provided by that program.

Trump has said he wants to aid them and has even proposed a path to citizenshi­p for 1.8 million, but in exchange he wants $25 billion for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall and significan­t curbs to legal immigratio­n.

McConnell agreed to the open-ended debate, a Senate rarity in recent years, after Democrats forced a government shutdown last month and would supply enough votes to reopen agencies with a promise of a debate and votes on immigratio­n. They had initially demanded a deal to help Dreamers, not a simple promise of votes.

To prevail, any plan will need 60 votes, meaning substantia­l support from both parties. Republican­s control the chamber 51-49, but Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has been home for weeks battling brain cancer.

It’s unclear who will offer what.

Some version of Trump’s plan and a bipartisan proposal to give Dreamers a chance at citizenshi­p — with no border security money or legal immigratio­n restrictio­ns — seem likely to surface.

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