Time is running out for Congress to repair DACA
THE deadline President Trump set for Congress to come up with an alternative to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which he is canceling, is now less than two weeks away — March 5. Based on last week’s events, it’s time to wonder whether a fix will happen.
The U.S. Senate on Thursday failed to approve any of the four immigration bills presented and thus address “Dreamers,” those brought to this country illegally as children.
There are roughly 700,000 in the United States who benefit from the DACA program instituted in 2012 by former President Barack Obama.
One of the bills, by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Chris Coons, D-Del., included a path to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who came here as children, something Trump has supported, but no money for Trump’s border wall. It failed 52-47.
Another bill, by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, included a path to citizenship for 1.8 million, $25 billion for border security and prevented DACA recipients from sponsoring their parents for legal status. Trump has sought these elements, but he threatened to veto the bill and it fell six votes short of the 60 needed for passage, with only eight Republicans voting “yes.”
The final attempt was a bill by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and backed by the president. It included the citizenship path and border wall funding, curbs in chain migration and elimination of the diversity visa lottery program. It received just 39 “yes” votes including from Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma City.
(An amendment by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., which sought to penalize sanctuary cities and didn’t address DACA or border security, was voted down 54-45.)
Lankford, who has worked for months on this issue, criticized Democrats for refusing to support the Grassley bill. “Most of what was proposed by the president and Senate Republicans has passed the Senate multiple times over the past 15 years, but not today,” Lankford said. “It’s disappointing that Democrats would not come to the table simply because President Trump supported it.”
It’s worth noting that several Republicans also rejected the Grassley bill, including Sen. Jim Inhofe of Tulsa (he also voted against the Collins bill).
All the bills considered last week included a path to citizenship for young people eligible for DACA. The Grassley and Collins measures each provided Trump with border wall funding. Democrats have been critical of the wall, but strongly backed the Collins bill.
Vox policy reporter Dylan Scott noted that legal immigration proved to be the biggest sticking point.
“The White House wanted substantial legal immigration cuts through changes to family based migration and the diversity visa program,” Scott wrote. “Those provisions were incorporated into the Grassley plan, but it had trouble mustering … Republican support.
“Now, senators will return to their home states, having done nothing — yet again — to solve the DACA crisis.”
If Trump and the Republican-led Congress fail to produce a solution, they’ll likely pay for it in November. It’s not too late to provide certainty to Dreamers, most of whom have only known life in this country, but time is running out.