Doing right by Dreamers
Abudget deadline looms, and many Democrats want Congress to come up with a plan for the so-called Dreamers — immigrants brought into the country illegally as children who have since grown up American — before they will support a spending bill. They shouldn’t have to threaten a government shutdown.
The Obama administration gave Dreamers a reprieve with the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Under it, America would not deport and provide temporary legal status to young adults who grew up here, went to school here or served in the military, and have never committed a serious crime.
President Donald Trump canceled the program and gave Congress until March to come up with a legislative solution for Dreamers.
In one small regard, Trump had a fair point in canceling DACA. It always should have been implemented through legislation, not executive order. American democracy works better when the three branches of government cooperate and fill their specific roles, not when one branch exercises unitary power.
Now time is running out. Congress has not managed to advance a bill in either chamber, and the president seems to change his mind weekly about what he wants.
Among the ideas kicking around Congress for what DACA 2.0 might look like are granting Dreamers a path to citizenship, permanent residency status or renewable temporary legal status.
A path to citizenship is the best choice. Dreamers have earned the right to call themselves Americans. It’s not their fault that their parents brought them here illegally. The White House is open to the idea, but other Republicans remain hesways. about citizenship. If the best that can pass is permanent residency, it would suffice for now. At least then Dreamers would not have to worry about deportation someday.
The third option, a temporary measure, is better than nothing, but not by much.
Trump and many of his fellow Republicans want to tie DACA to increased security along the southern border. If that is needed for compromise, there are far worse deals to cut. Indeed a few years ago, a bipartisan Gang of Eight lawmakers reached a reasonable deal to spend $46 billion on border security.
What should not be a price for DACA, as much as the president might want it, is a wasteful border wall.
Democrats had threatened to block a spending package over DACA in December, but leadership blinked. Just as we blamed Republicans for government shutdowns in the past, Democrats would be making a huge mistake to tie non-budgetary issues to an open and functioning government.
Republicans, meanwhile, do not have enough votes to pass a spending package without some help from Democrats. Yet they worry about appearing soft on illegal immigration and offending their base.
Giving Dreamers stability is the right thing to do. So is passing a spending bill to keep the government running. One shouldn’t be predicated on the other. But this is Washington we’re talking about, and few things are ever so simple.
About 800,000 Dreamers live in the United States — about 17,000 of them in Colorado. They are fellow Americans in every way except for a piece of paper making them official. Stop using them as bargaining chips and start treating them like human beings.