Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Dreamers rally in nation’s capital
Ready to make deal, he tweets as program deadline passes
Veronica Paute (right) wears a shirt with a picture of her brother, Cristobal Paute, during a rally to support the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. She said her DACA-eligible brother is being detained by immigration services. Monday was the deadline imposed by President Donald Trump for extending DACA protections.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday blamed Democrats for failing to pass legislation extending protections for young immigrants, which he has tried to end.
Trump tweeted, “It’s March 5th and the Democrats are nowhere to be found on DACA.” He said, “We are ready to make a deal!”
The program, which temporarily shields hundreds of thousands of young people from deportation, was to end Monday but court orders have forced the Trump administration to keep issuing renewals, easing the sense of urgency.
Also on Monday, a Republican congressman said he’s trying to force a vote on legislation offering a three-year extension on the program’s protections.
The election-year effort by Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., could be an uphill climb.
Most Republicans don’t want to extend the program unless lawmakers also provide billions of dollars to start building Trump’s proposed wall with Mexico. And some Democrats say they don’t back what they see as a temporary fix to a problem they want permanently resolved — and that many say should also provide the immigrants with a pathway to citizenship.
Under House rules, Coffman will need 218 signatures on a “discharge petition” to force a vote on his bill. Coffman’s bill has 31 co-sponsors about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
“We must give these youths the certainty that they can continue to work and study here in the U.S. while Congress debates broader legislation to fix our flawed immigration system,” Coffman wrote in a letter that urged members of both parties to support his measure.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has said his preference is to round up votes for a wider-ranging conservative bill that imposes restrictions on legal immigration.
Coffman announced his plan on the date that Trump set as a deadline for Congress to approve legislation renewing those protections. Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program last year.
A nationwide injunction in January by U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco required the administration to resume renewals but does not apply to first-time applicants.
Alsup ruled Jan. 9 that the administration failed to justify ending the program and that the plaintiffs — the states of California, Maine, Maryland and Minnesota as well as the University of California — had a good chance of winning at trial. His nationwide injunction required the administration to resume accepting renewal requests within a week.
On Feb. 26, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the administration’s unusual request to intervene, which would have leapfrogged the appeals court.
Immigration advocates were using Monday’s deadline to intensify pressure on the White House and Congress for permanent protection. The ACLU said Sunday that it launched “multiple six-figure advertising buys” with United We Dream and MoveOn.org, focusing on Trump.
On Monday, activists and DACA recipients held rallies and marches around the country. In Washington, D.C., supporters took to the streets around Capitol Hill. Demonstrators blocked intersections in acts of civil disobedience.
Trump had insisted that any legislation saving the program had to be coupled with funding for his border wall and an overhaul of the legal immigration system. The president proposed a path to citizenship for 1.8 million young immigrants as part of an immigration package that included $25 billion for a wall and other border enforcement measures and sharp cuts to legal immigration.
Democrats and some Republicans balked at those demands, and the Senate rejected that plan.
Immigrant advocates and their allies in Congress want a narrower bill that would protect DACA recipients, possibly combined with limited border enforcement measures, but the administration has balked. Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats for the impasse, while Democrats say he created it by ending the program.