DACA phase-out a chance for real reform
Politics is a profession dedicated mainly to theater and propaganda, with a little substance thrown in now and then to keep the enterprise respectable. Thus the sound and fury surrounding President Donald Trump’s decision to phase out his predecessor’s policy on immigrants who were brought here illegally as children obscures an important result: Congress may now be in a better position than it has been in years to enact real immigration reform.
Indeed, as events of the past week have shown, both parties have a shot of achieving long-sought immigration goals, if they’re willing to sit down and deal.
Many Republicans recognize the public relations fiasco that would accompany a failure to throw a lifeline to so-called Dreamers — the 800,000 who fall under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy issued by President Obama five years ago. They also realize Dreamers, some of whom don’t even speak the language of their native land, have a greater moral claim for permanent residency in the United States than other illegal immigrants.
Dreamers in fact deserve better than DACA, which provides only for a twoyear reprieve from the threat of deportation, with an opportunity for successive renewals. That’s no way to live a life or plan a future in the only country you consider home — especially when it’s tied to the flimsy anchor of an executive order.
Nothing of course is guaranteed with Congress, but DACA’S demise has spurred members into action. Permanent relief for Dreamers alone would amount to a major immigration breakthrough. In a critical concession Tuesday, the White House signaled it wouldn’t tie a bill for Dreamers to funding for the president’s border wall, while Democratic leaders made what may amount to an equivalent concession, saying they’d consider border security measures that don’t involve the wall. By Thursday the outline of a potential deal was being touted (prematurely, it seems) by both sides.
“I am confident something will be done,” Colorado 6th District Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican, told me, while confirming that a successful bill is very likely to include security enhancements.
To be sure, elements of both parties have made a habit over the years of wrecking promising legislation on a host
of issues for cynical political gain or to placate ideologues. But the momentum on the Dreamers appears as real as it is rare.
Meanwhile, Rep. Ken Buck, Colorado 4th District Republican, believes the time may be ripe for an even broader range of immigration measures.
Buck is pushing another breakthrough idea — one that in the long run may be as important as Dreamer relief. Along with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-wis., he is reviving the idea of a guest worker program administered by the states. Those hostile to the prospect of immigrant workers wouldn’t have to tap any of the visas allotted to them under the plan. But states seeking to meet the urgent needs of local and industry could do so, and far more efficiently than the notoriously plodding federal visa programs.
Although Johnson’s Senate bill was filed several months ago, Buck tells me he is still refining his version to attract the widest possible support. “I’m not going to introduce a bill for messaging purposes,” he told me. “I think it’s more important that I gather political support by getting Democrats and conservative immigration groups on board.”
He “absolutely” does plan to release his bill this year, however, and to hold hearings. He also expects it will be part of a larger package of immigration legislation.
But is it really possible to attract support — or at least neutrality — from groups who’ve advocated sharp cutbacks in immigration? “Conservative groups are all right with the concept of guest workers in a limited way,” he replied, so long as additional visas don’t (in their view) take jobs from Americans.
In practical terms, that means additional visas for temporary agricultural, landscaping and perhaps hospitality workers would be less controversial than in high tech fields. The need for ag workers in Buck’s district, for example, is indisputable.
“The dairies in northern Colorado have a large interest in a guest worker program,” he notes, adding that Leprino Foods could increase production of cheese and whey protein powder by 50 percent or more if it it could expand its dairy facilities.
“But they can’t expand because they can’t find the workers,” Buck said. “You don’t have a choice. You have to milk the cows twice a day, and the first milking starts at about 3 in the morning and goes until 5 and then you milk them in the afcommerce ternoon.” Finding workers for this schedule is a challenge in a state with unemployment at 2.4 percent and well-paying oil and gas jobs a competing a lure.
A state-administered visa program would also “give Congress a more precise number in terms of where the need is in the labor market,” Buck predicted. Congress could adjust the overall visa caps in response or enhance vocational and science and technology education, he added, to deal with the worker scarcity.
Congress has become a serial underachiever in recent years and it would be no surprise if it disappointed us again. But the the ultimate irony is possible, too: that an administration born in hostility to immigrants ends up clearing a path for legislative solutions to immigrant and labor issues that were all but off the table before Donald Trump arrived in town.